We have all experienced it. Coming home from a great holiday to be hit with extortionate charges when we return home. The EU’s new policy to eliminate roaming charges could be the answer, couldn’t it?
The free roaming initiative; set to launch in June 2017, has a fair use policy. This policy attaches restrictions to the length of time that a customer can use their phone abroad.
It means that a customer can use their phone or mobile device for up to 30 days at a time, for a total of 90 days per year before having to connect to a network in a home country or roaming charges will be incurred.
The policy does make allowances for customers that travel for work. By logging into their home network once a day, their usage will not be included in the monthly limits. The main reason for the addition of these usage limits is to avoid customers visiting one European country, purchasing a cheap SIM deal and going on to use it in another country.
One of the largest mobile providers; Three, have launched a “Feel at Home” initiative. Feel at home is available to customers travelling in many international countries – including a majority of European countries, allowing free roaming by using a customer’s existing allowance. Unfortunately, “Feel at Home” is subject to the fair use policy and customers out of the UK for a month or more, over twice a year could face their accounts being suspended.
Since April 2016, service providers have been required to restrict roaming charges at €0.05 per minute, €0.06 per SMS and €0.20 per MB. When the EU roaming initiative comes into action these charges will be reduced to €0.04 per minute, SMS messages will cost €0.01 and data usage will be €0.05 per MB.
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