Cheaper calls for Belgians abroad as EU scraps roaming charges

Users should no longer incur any extra costs for any of these activities, whether at home or abroad, within the terms of a provider’s package.

The move is “a real European success story”, according to the presidents of the EU institutions in a joint statement. “The EU is there to bring people closer to each other, and to make their lives better,” they said. “By working more closely together, the EU has been able to obtain a concrete positive result for the citizens of Europe.” 

In effect, using a phone abroad should cost no more than using it at home. One exception is customers of Voo, which may continue to apply roaming costs under very strict conditions. It has no network of its own and so is not able to compensate the charges it has to pay to overseas operators with charges it levies itself for network use. It can charge its subscribers for roaming but only above 60 minutes of calls made, 60 text messages sent and 200Mb of data a day.

Phone calls from Belgium to another country are not affected by the change and will still incur higher tariffs than domestic calls. Operators may charge a supplement if a user’s consumption abroad rises above their use at home. 

Switzerland and Turkey are not covered by the new legislation. The UK is, for the time being, and the issue is likely to form part of the Brexit negotiations.

Photo: Marjan Lazarevski/Flickr