Europeans for fair roaming

March 12, 2012 · 7:45 pm

FairRoaming reaches first goal, gets more support

Last week, the European Parliament’s ITRE committee voted for lowering roaming costs within the EU. This marked a big success and step forward for our campaign. The Parliament’s vote followed a proposal of the European Commission from last July but demands even lower price caps for roaming:

no more than 15 ct/min to make calls and 5 ct/min to receive calls by 2014,
no more than 5 ct for sending SMS,
no more than 50 ct/MB for internet access from 2012,
no more than 20 ct/MB for internet access from 2014,
easier access for alternative operators to offer cheaper roaming services.

Next steps:

Continue reading →

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Tagged as Christian Engström, European Parliament, Fair Roaming, Judith Merkies, Paul Rübig, proposal, Róża Thun, roaming, support

February 28, 2012 · 12:28 pm

[Press Release] Welcome improvements but prices could be lower

The European citizens’ Initiative “Europeans for Fair Roaming” welcomes the new proposal of the European Parliament to lower roaming charges in Europe but remains committed that prices could be lower. The European Parliament today voted on amendments to the newest push by the EU against the high costs of using mobile phones abroad.

In their proposal, parliamentarians propose to lower costs for roaming calls to 15ct per minute and for internet access to 20ct per Megabyte (or 200€ per Gigabyte) until 2014. While those prices are still higher than what would have been appropriate according to the European telecom regulator BEREC, they are an improvement over older proposals by the European Commission. Continue reading →

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Tagged as Angelika Niebler, European Parliament, European Union, expensive, ITRE, Neelie Kroes, roaming, vote

February 27, 2012 · 12:37 pm

New supporters for our call: Tep and Lambert van Nistelrooij MEP

Our network has once again grown: Dutch member of the European Parliament Lambert van Nistelrooij and roaming operator Tep have joined our efforts.

Lambert van Nistelrooij is a member of the CDA party and the European People’s Party and supports lower roaming fees as a substitute member of the ITRE committee, which is the key committee discussing the new EU roaming regulation in the Parliament. Please visit his website at www.cda.nl/Nistelrooij for more information.

Tep (www.tepwireless.com) is a special provider for internet access abroad: Tep offers mobile hotspots with data packages for rental that work all over Europe and allow users to go online for low rates even when roaming.

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Tagged as campaign, European Parliament, European Union, Fair Roaming, Lambert van Nistelrooij, roaming regulation, support, Tep

February 21, 2012 · 9:20 pm

Judith Merkies MEP calls for action

Dutch member of the European parliament Judith Merkies (who now also supports our mission) has started a write-in campaign for lower roaming charges.

Ms Merkies who sits on the key committee ITRE stated: “Kroes’ proposal is way too cautious. We have a single market in Europe, haven’t we? Then why these high costs? I want to eliminate the differences between national and international rates as soon as possible.”

Merkies prefers more ambitious plans than those of Commissioner Kroes. Her goal is to completely abolish roaming charges until 2014: “From then on, it doesn’t make a difference if you call from another EU member state to Amsterdam, Lisbon or Berlin.”

Support Merkies; call Kroes and MEPs for action
To support her plans, Merkies calls for action: click here to send a direct e-mail to Members of the European Parliament or retweet the tweet posted below