Europeans travelling within the EU countries will Roam Like at Home, paying domestic prices for roaming calls, SMS and data, when roaming charges come to an end this Thursday, the 15th of June.

People will pay domestic prices, irrespective of where they are travelling in the EU for phone-calls, SMS and mobile internet.

The European Commission Representation in Malta explained that phone calls, SMS and going online with your mobile device from another EU country will be covered in the national bundle.

It said that the minutes of calls, SMS and megabytes of data that a person consumes abroad within the EU will be charged the same as at home. People will not have bill shocks anymore.

For someone on unlimited calls and SMS, he/she will get unlimited calls and SMS when roaming in the EU.

However, the Commission said, if a person has unlimited mobile data or very cheap mobile data at home, his operator may apply a safeguard (fair use) limit on data use while roaming.

The customer will have to be informed in advance by the operator, about such a limit and alert them when they reach this limit.

EU rules ensure that such a roaming data limit should cover the normal usage patterns of most travellers.

Should a person reach the limit, the Commission said that he/she can continue to use data roaming for a very small fee: up to 7.7 cent/GB + VAT, which is 6.5 times less than before 15 June 2017 and 25 times less than before that.

So long as a person periodically travels and spends more time in his home country than abroad over any 4-month period, they will fully benefit from Roam Like at Home, the Commission said.

Should anyone get charged extra, he/she should first contest those charges with their operator, who should have a complaints procedure in place, the Commission said. If the operator persists, the person should refer to the national telecoms regulator, who will settle the case.

The operator may contact a person and ask to pay more, if that person stays in another country within the EU longer than in his home country over a few months.

It has been noted that a very small number of operators in the EU have been allowed by the national regulator to continue applying a small roaming surcharge after 15 June, in order to avoid negative effects on very low domestic prices. The Commission said that these surcharges will be significantly lower than the ones applied before 15 June 2017.

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