European Union roaming regulations

European Union roaming regulations (sometimes called the Eurotariff) regulate the imposition of roaming charges within the European Union. They regulate both the charges a mobile network operator can impose on its subscribers for using telephony and data services outside of the network's member state, and the wholesale rates networks can charge each other to allow their subscribers access to each other's networks.

Since 2007, the roaming regulations have steadily lowered the maximum roaming charges allowable. A proposed regulation, which has passed the European parliament in April 2014 but still needs to be approved by the Council of the European Union, proposes to abolish end-user roaming charges in the EU. While originally proposed to go into effect in December 2015, the change has proven controversial, and the latest proposal as of June 2015 has a June 2017 effect date.

Background

The European Commission has often raised the issue of high roaming charges within the European Union. In October 2005, the European Commission launched a consumer website on roaming tariffs in order to highlight the issue, which included €12 for a 4-minute call.

In 2006, when high roaming charge rates persisted the Commission proposed to intervene in the market by setting maximum rates at which mobile network operators could charge their subscribers. The proposed regulation was approved by the European Parliament and by the Council of Ministers, and came into law in June 2007. It required capping of retail and wholesale voice roaming charges from 30 August 2007, unless a special roaming tariff applied. The maximum prices was set to decrease further in 2008 and 2009. The regulation also required that customers traveling to another member state would receive a text message of the charges that apply for roaming services. Originally the capping measures were introduced on a temporary basis and were due to expire on 30 June 2010.

The law was amended in 2009 based on a review carried out under the 2007 regulation. The expiry date of the 2007 regulation was extended to 30 June 2012 and was extended to text messages and data roaming. It also provided for further annual reductions in the price capping until the expiry of the regulation and for compulsory per-second billing after 30 seconds for calls made, and per-second billing throughout for calls received.

Having still found that market conditions did not justify lifting the capping of roaming within the EU, the EU replaced the law in 2012. Under the 2012 regulation retail roaming capping charges are due to expire in 2017 and wholesale capping charges are due to expire in 2022.

Proposal to abolish all roaming charges

In 2013 the Commission proposed to establish a single market for electronic communications within the Union and to abolish roaming charges. The proposal was approved by the European Parliament on 3 April 2014, by a margin of 534 votes to 25. As drafted it would have ended roaming charges from 15 December 2015. The Council of the European Union has to approve legislation before it can take effect, and ended up rejecting the specifics of the proposed legislation.

Regulation (EU) 2015/2120 which was adopted on 25 November 2015 provides for the phased reduction of roaming changes within the European Union. As a transitional measure, from May 2016 the current price capping for roaming within the EU will be replaced by a maximum surcharge for roaming services which may be charged in addition to domestic charges. This may increase the cost of roaming for customers whose domestic rates plus the surcharge are higher than the price caps, but will reduce the charges for consumers with lower domestic prices or who pay for monthly allowances for using a particular service.

The Regulation also requires the Commission to submit a report to the European Parliament by June 2016 along with proposed legislative for regulation of the wholesale roaming market within the EU with a view to eliminating the transitional roaming surcharges by June 2017.

Territorial extent

European Union roaming regulations apply to the 28 members of the EU plus the three non-EU members of the European Economic Area (Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway). The EU countries have applied the roaming regulation since 30 August 2007 while the EEA countries have applied it since 1 January 2008.

Switzerland does not apply the regulations, despite close relations with the EU in several fields. Charges are considerably higher for EEA residents roaming in Switzerland, and for Swiss residents in the EEA, especially on internet data. Rates vary between €1-€10/MB. Areas which are connected to member states but are outside the EU also don't apply the regulations. Two examples with really high rates for visitors are Jersey and Greenland.

Prices

Common limits

All roaming charges for temporary roaming will be abolished on 15 June 2017 (fair-use rules are to be applied). The tariffs covering the period from 1 May 2016 are maximum surcharges to the price paid in the home network.

In force from		30 Aug 2007	30 Aug 2008	1 Jul 2009	1 Jul 2010	1 Jul 2011	1 Jul 2012	1 Jul 2013	1 Jul 2014	1 May 2016
In force until		29 Aug 2008	30 Jun 2009	30 Jun 2010	30 Jun 2011	30 Jun 2012	30 Jun 2013	30 Jun 2014	30 Apr 2016	15 Jun 2017
Service	Unit	Roaming limits in EEA countries (all the prices are in euro without VAT)
Retail caps (applies to subscribers) or Maximum surcharge from 2016
Outgoing calls to any EEA number	price of 1 minute	0.49	0.46	0.43	0.39	0.35	0.29	0.24	0.19	0.05
	billing interval	Not regulated		per second starting from 31st second
Incoming calls from any number	price of 1 minute	0.24	0.22	0.19	0.15	0.11	0.08	0.07	0.05	0.014
	billing interval	Not regulated		per second starting from 1st second
Incoming calls redirected to voice mail	price of 1 minute	0.73	0.68	0.62	Free					Free
Outgoing text message to any EEA number	price of 1 message	Not regulated		0.11			0.09	0.08	0.06	0.02
Incoming text message from any number	price of 1 message	Not regulated		Free						Free
Data transfer	price of 1 Megabyte	Not regulated					0.70	0.45	0.20	0.05
	billing interval	Not regulated					per 1 KB starting from 1st KB
	monthly default cut-off limit	Not regulated			50.00
Right to choose an alternative roaming provider (ARP)		Not regulated							Yes
Default notification text message with roaming prices		Not regulated		Yes
Free number to call for detailed roaming prices		Not regulated		Yes
Free '112' access in roaming		Not regulated		Yes
Wholesale caps (Operator to Operator)
Outgoing calls to any EEA number	price of 1 minute	0.30	0.28	0.26	0.22	0.18	0.14	0.10	0.05
	billing interval	Not regulated		per second starting from 31st second
Inbound calls		same as termination of a non-roaming call on the visited network, see Termination rates.
Outgoing text message to any EEA number	price of 1 message	Not regulated		0.04			0.03	0.02
Incoming text message from any number		Not regulated		Free
Data transfer	price of 1 Megabyte	Not regulated		1.00	0.80	0.50	0.25	0.15	0.05
	billing interval	Not regulated		per 1 KB starting from 1st KB
Right to use other operators' networks in other Member States at regulated wholesale prices		Not regulated							Yes
Legend	Past
	Active
	Future

Exchange rates

For services paid for in currencies other than the euro, the amount in euro is converted to the other currency using the reference rates published in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJoEU).

After the adoption of EU regulation 531/2012 the retail exchange rate to be used for the relevant year should be calculated by taking the average of the reference exchange rates published in the OJoEU on 1 March, 1 April and 1 May of that year, with the new exchange rate coming into force on 1 July of that year. The wholesale exchange rate however is taken from only the rate published on 1 May of that year.

Local price limits

Method of calculating

As the VAT rates and currencies vary across the EU and EEA, the European Commission publishes price caps in euro and excluding VAT. So the final prices for each country can be calculated by adding the corresponding VAT rate and converting to the currency of the country (if non-euro).

For countries using the euro	For countries using currency other than euro
$x = \left(1+\frac{\text{VAT}}{100\%}\right) \cdot EC_{\text{rate}}$	$x = \left(1+\frac{\text{VAT}}{100\%}\right) \cdot EC_\text{rate} \cdot Ex_\text{rate}$

where

$EC_{\text{rate}}$ is European Commission maximum allowed tariff without VAT in euro

${\text{VAT}}$ is Value Added Tax rate for specified country, given in per cent

$Ex_{\text{rate}}$ is Exchange rate for specified country published by ECB

In order to avoid double taxation, non-taxation or the distortion of competition, an EU member state may, in accordance with Article 9(3)(a) of Council Directive 77/388 ("the Sixth VAT Directive"), include within the scope of its national VAT any telecommunications services used within its territory but billed outside the EU VAT area. When opting to do so, it must also exempt from its national VAT any roaming services supplied by home networks within its territory but used outside the EU VAT area. The inclusion of telecommunications within the scope of Article 9 was requested by the United Kingdom, which subsequently enacted the change under Article 19 of the Value Added Tax (Place of Supply of Services) Order 1992. Consequently, when an EU member state makes this VAT exemption, roaming on networks in the Åland Islands, Gibraltar, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, the Canary Islands, Ceuta, Melilla and French overseas departments is subject to the price caps with no VAT applied, because these countries and territories are within the EEA but outside the EU VAT area.

Rounding

The charge limits for the Eurotariff and the wholesale average charge should be calculated to the maximum number of decimal places permitted by the official exchange rate. This sets the maximum that can be charged in the national currency. Providers may wish in practice to quote charges in whole numbers of currency units, especially at the retail level, although this in practice is not compulsory. In this case, the numbers should be rounded down. Rounding up of these numbers to above the level of the relevant cap is not permitted under any circumstances.

External links

• Procedure File: 2013/0309(COD) - The proposed EU law which includes an abolishment of all roaming charges.