EU mobile roaming charges to be scrapped by June 2017

Mobile roaming charges will end within the EU by mid-2017 and will be significantly cut next summer after the European Parliament formally approved the rules.

Mobile phone users will pay the same price to make calls, send text messages and use data wherever they are in the EU from June 15, 2017.

This means users within the EU will be charged the same as they would in their home country.

Roaming charges will become cheaper from April next year, when operators will only be able to charge a small additional amount to domestic prices of up to 0.05 euro (3p) per minute of call made, 0.02 euro (1p) per SMS sent, and 0.05 euro (3p) per MB of data, excluding VAT.