EU Extends Free Mobile Roaming Until 2032

Photo source: European Commission

The European Parliament and EU Member States recently reached an agreement that ensures travellers in the European Union can continue to benefit from free mobile roaming for another 10 years.

The new Roaming Regulation will prolong until 2032 the existing ‘Roam like at home’ system whereby citizens cannot be subject to extra charges for calls or data used while travelling within the EU.

“At the same time, with this new regulation we also improve the quality of the roaming experience,” Margrethe Vestager, Executive Vice-President for a Europe Fit for the Digital Age, said.

The regulation will also bring about new advantages as the roaming experience will be upgraded and offer better services and more transparency.

Citizens will be able to call, text and use mobile data while travelling within the EU at no extra costs and with the same quality they experience at home; they will have improved access to emergency communications (such as 112, the single European emergency number) regardless of where they are in Europe; and, they will have the right to clear information when a service they use while roaming might cause inadvertent extra charges.

The regulation will enter into force on July 1, 2022.

Free of charge roaming in the EU was introduced in 2017. Since then Europeans have been phoning, texting and surfing abroad in the EU more, according to the European Commission.