Europe proposes one week of free roaming - 5 minutes per call

President of the EU, Latvia, has drafted an amendment to put an end to the deadlock between Member States and the European Parliament on the abolition of roaming charges. Europeans should be able to make free phone calls from abroad for at least one week.

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In the proposal of Latvia, European citizens should be allowed to make at least 5 minute free phone calls for at least 7 days a year when staying in other European countries. In the same period, and also without being charged, they should be allowed to send a minimum of 5 text messages and use a minimum of 10MB of data.

Telecom providers would need to properly inform their customers about the rates, the number of days and the volume that can be used at no cost during their stay abroad. Consumers should also get insight in their usage and should be able to set a limit to avoid undesired high phone bills. The provider should send a notification when the user comes close to that limit.

The proposal is contained in a by Statewatch published amendment of Latvia, currently President of the European Union. The amendment must close the gap between Member States and the European Parliament on the abolition of roaming charges. The European Parliament and European Commission want to get rid of roaming charges entirely on short term, but the European Member States are against that proposal.

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In March this year, the Member States proposed to allow roaming up to 5MB per day, to be deducted from users' own bundle, until 2018. The European Commission called the 5MB per day proposal a joke.

The European Commission, the European Parliament and the European Council have to negotiate on the amendment.

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