New Roaming Regulation proposal

To ensure that citizens can continue to enjoy roaming without additional charges when travelling in the EU, the European Commission proposed in February 2021 a new Roaming Regulation. The new regulation will prolong the current rules that are due to expire in 2022, for another 10 years.

According to latest Eurobarometer data, when travelling abroad in the EU, 33% of people said that they experienced lower mobile internet speed than they usually have in their home country and 28% that the network standard was lower than at home (e.g. 3G instead of 4G). According to the proposal, consumers will be entitled to have the same quality and speed of their mobile network connection abroad as at home, where equivalent networks are available. The proposed regulation aims to secure that customers who are roaming can access emergency services and benefit from caller location transmission seamlessly and free of charge, including through means other than voice calls, such as SMS or emergency applications. In addition to this, travellers should also be informed about the means of reaching emergency services.

The new roaming rules call for operators to provide consumers with sufficient information about the increased costs that might incur from using value-added services while roaming.