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New Cuts of the EU Roaming Charges from 1 July
30.06.2011
Starting tomorrow, 1 July 2011, all the operators that offer roaming services will have to charge new maximum prices from their users who employ voice services when roaming across EU country, or to Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein, inasmuch as basic tariff plans are concerned. Thus, the cost of making a roamed call will not exceed 0.35 Euro/minute (excluding VAT), whereas the cost of receiving a roamed call will not exceed 0.11 Euro/minute (excluding VAT). The price for sending a text message (SMS) while roaming in the EU remains unchanged, i.e. limited to maximum 0.11 Euro (excluding VAT), whereas receiving an SMS in another EU country is cost-free.
The new charges are in line with the provisions of the Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on roaming on public mobile telephone networks within the Community, and all the operators from Romania have already announced that they will observe them.
The new charges are enforced automatically and free of charge for the users who have activated the roaming service and use basic tariff plans, more precisely those to whom the Euro-tariff is applied. This requires neither the conclusion of an additional subscription nor incurs other costs, as these tariff plans can be combined with other tariff plans. The aforementioned maximum charges represent the limit the providers have to apply in the roaming standard tariff plan they make available to their customers, while being able to offer other types of tariff plans, as well. Consequently, it is advisable that the users analyse the offer of their own provider before leaving their home country, in order to choose the tariff plan which suits their needs best.
The European Commission is currently revising the International Roaming Regulation and a new regulation is to be submitted for debates in the following period.
Background
The international roaming service provides the users with the possibility to use their mobile terminal (handset, laptop etc.) when they travel abroad. Thus, they may call or be called, send or receive SMS, or use data services (video calls, e-mail, Internet surfing), although they are not in the area covered by the network provider to which they hold a subscription (either postpaid or pre-paid).
What should users do before leaving their home country?
Before leaving their home country, users must make sure that the roaming service is activated!
The providers have several commercial offers for the roaming service, at different prices, often putting forward special offers for the vacation periods. For further details on the roaming charges, as well as on the commercial offers for the roaming services of the providers of electronic communications services provided at mobile locations in Romania, the users may address the respective providers’ websites or customer care services.
Depending on how often, and the duration of the time interval during which they use this service, the users are advised to analyse various offers in order to choose the tariff plan which suits them best.
Information
When entering the territory of an EU country, the users will receive information (regularly, through an SMS) regarding the applicable tariffs, both for voice and data services.
What do users pay for?
Voice and SMS services
When using the handset while roaming, the user pays for both made and received calls. The charges may vary from country to country, as well as depending of the operator selected in the visited country from among those with which the provider in the home country has concluded roaming agreements. It is important that users hold information on these aspects also, before leaving their country.
For the incoming roaming call, the user who initiated the call and the user who received it are both charged.
Receiving a text message (SMS) when roaming is cost-free.
Internet access, data and MMS services
The use of Internet access or data transmission services (e.g. e-mail, mobile banking, online games, video on demand (VoD) etc., including MMS) while in roaming is regularly charged in relation to the transferred data volume (both downloaded and uploaded).
The providers make available to the end-users one or several financial limits or maximum volume limits for specified periods of time, provided the end-users inform in advance the operators on the forecasted data volume. One of these limits (default limit system) is close to the value of EUR 50 (excluding VAT), which cannot be exceeded, for the expenses to be covered in a billed month.
The default limit system is applied to all customers who do not opt for another limit, and the operators have to send users a warning when they reach 80% of their data-roaming bill limit.
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