Cellphone Roaming Charges End in Europe. Many Respond With a Yawn.
But the experience of Ms. Krastanova, and many others like her, has many wondering why the region’s policy makers took 10 years —
and invested significant political capital — to end roaming charges when it is not a daily concern for many of Europe’s 500 million citizens.
By MARK SCOTTJUNE 14, 2017
After a decade of debate, Europe will finally abolish cellphone roaming charges this week, allowing people from Britain to Bulgaria to call, send text messages
and surf the web without incurring eye-watering charges when traveling across the 28-nation bloc.
"It’s for the few, not the many." Defenders of Europe’s digital policies reject such criticism, saying
that removing cellphone roaming charges took time because it represented the bedrock for the rest of the region’s digital plans.
While there will be strict caps on how much telecom operators can charge when individuals are outside their home countries, cellphone carriers can increase other fees, including phone calls
and text messages to other European countries when people are not traveling, to recoup potential lost income.
Roberto Viola said that We’re trying to create a Europe without digital borders,
And while the roaming rules took longer than many had first expected, Europe’s other digital proposals, she said, were still on track.