EP votes to end mobile roaming charges

After two years of negotiations, Members of the European Parliament today voted to clear the last legislative hurdle that will see excessive mobile phone roaming prices banned across the EU by June 2017.

Speaking in the European Parliament, MEP Roberta Metsola welcomed the vote, saying that "banning roaming charges is a tangible example of the benefits of a closer economic union.

“It means that our citizens will be not be burdened by out-of-date business practices and will see the benefits of a true European Digital Market. It is time that we realised that digital services cannot stop at our borders".

Metsola, who is a Member of the European Parliament Committee on Internal Market and Consumer Protection, said that prices will be decreasing drastically by April 2016 before being completely removed the following year.

Metsola also called for increased efforts to ensure net neutrality and an open internet, saying that a two-speed internet would undermine the concept of freedom of communication, and operators should not be allowed to slow down traffic for commercial reasons.