Telecoms in Romania can still charge for data roaming after subscription resources end

Telecom operators in Romania can apply a roaming data tax of maximum EUR 7.7 per GB after the subscriptions and options resources are consumed, Romanian telecom market regulator ANCOM said. The tax will be charged from June 15 to the end of the year. Starting 2018 the data tariffs will decrease gradually, the regulator said, quoted by Agerpres. “Starting June 15, 2017 roaming data consumed in the E.U. member states and in Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein are deducted from the national resources included in subscriptions and options, according to the ‘Roam like at home’ mechanism. After these are used, data consumption will be charged by the same tariffs as in Romania,” ANCOM said. At the same time, telecom companies have the option of defining minimum limits for reasonable use of data services, which can be higher or lower than the national traffic included in subscriptions and options, depending on their price. “The limit remains unchanged, regardless of the national data consumption performed before entering roaming,” according to ANCOM. If companies do not set a reasonable limit for roaming data use in the E.U., then the data traffic will be charged at the same tariff as in Romania. The data limits will increase yearly, starting January 2018 as the regulated price per 1GB will go down. Telecom companies are compelled to send clients a notification when they reach the limit of reasonable use for roaming data, and indicate the value of the tax that will apply for the additional roaming data. One Romanian telecom company already submitted with ANCOM a request for such a tax for additional roaming data use. The request came from RCS&RDS, the telecom operator with the lowest mobile service prices in the local market. International roaming fees disappear starting June 15 editor@romania-insider.com