This regulation, which is very important for European citizens, is an important step towards reducing the borders between the EU Member States and strengthening the Union.

International roaming fees are being lifted in the Member States as of 15 June 2017. As such, EU citizens will continue to use their tariffs/packages without paying additional roaming charges for speech, messaging and mobile internet usage, whichever EU country they are going to. The regulation only held the EU citizens and the Turkish citizens will only be able to benefit from it following membership.

As it is known, when a GSM operator of a country is used in another country, a fee determined by bilateral agreements of GSM operators, also known as international roaming, is paid. Due to these generally high fees, many operators sell packages for use abroad. Since roaming fees include talking, messaging as well as the use of internet, the aforementioned data packages cause higher prices to be reflected on the consumers' bills compared to others. Therefore, when they go to another country, many people do not make calls to pay for the payed bills, do not post messages, and especially avoid internet usage.

Departing from this problem, on the proposal of the European Commission in 2015, the EP and the Council have decided to end international travel charges for people who travel regularly in the EU and the Commission adopted the relevant technical legislation in December 2016.

Following this, the Commission was authorised to oversee the international roaming market and to make the necessary proposals in that respect before 15 June, in accordance with the Telecommunications Single Market Regulation in order to terminate retail sales charges on the international roaming market by 15 June.  According to a press release issued by the Commission on 1 February 1, the EP, the Commission and the Council have agreed on how to regulate the market in order to end international roaming fees starting from 15 June.

The report on the removal of international roaming fees, prepared by the Finnish MEP Miapetra Kumpula-Natri of the Social Democratic Group (S &D) was accepted in the EP General Assembly by 279 to 549 votes.

This arrangement aims not to encounter surprise bills in the use of mobile phones in travels made in the Member States and adopts "roaming as at home" principle. EU citizens will continue to use their tariffs/packages on 15 June, without paying additional roaming charges for speech, messaging and mobile internet usage in whichever EU country they will go to. Those who do not hold any package will be subject to the fees set by the EU. Those charges include: one minute voice call at 3.2 cents, a text message at 1 cent, and one gigabyte of mobile data at 7.7 euros. Mobile data prices are expected to be phased down to 6 euros in 2018, 4.5 euros in 2019, 3.5 euros in 2020, 3 euros in 2021 and finally 2.5 euros in 2022.

THE ABOLITION OF INTERNATIONAL ROAMING CHARGES IN 5 QUESTIONS

1) What does international roaming mean and how is it applied in the EU?

When a GSM operator in one country is used in another country, there are charges called international roaming fees, in addition to the tariffs that the individual has to pay. Until today, international roaming charges have involved calls, text messaging and internet use, and especially the use of the internet has caused consumers to pay very high bills. Therefore, when people went abroad they either never used the phone or they used it in a very limited way.

2) What is meant by the removal of international roaming charges?

With the removal of international fees, EU citizens will continue to pay the current fees for calls, text messages and the internet for their GSM operators when they go to any EU country; and they will continue to use their current packages as well.

3) Are there any exceptions or time limits in the regulation regarding international roaming fees that are decided to be removed?

They aren’t any. Only if you are settled in another EU country and have a residence permit, the international tariff of any GSM operator in the destination country cannot be used. Only one EU country is settled and there is a residence permit, the international tariff of any GSM operator in the country of destination cannot be used.

4) Will it be a matter of which GSM operator the other party is using in calls or text messages while in another EU country, or whether it is fixed line or mobile line?

No it will not happen. In international roaming within the EU, all calls made to mobile and fixed lines will be reduced from within the domestic lines of the users, or they will be priced under the mentioned operator charges.

5) How the removal of international roaming fees will affect third-country nationals?

Removal of international roaming fees currently applies only to EU Member States and not to third countries such as Turkey.