Lower roaming charges for EU mobile calls from Romania from end- April

With roaming charges set to no longer apply as of June 15, 2017, rules are in place for the last intermediary step regulated by the European Commission. End-April, Romanian mobile telephony users who have chosen the basic tariff plans for roaming (Eurotariffs) will call mobile numbers in EU countries at the same cost as in Romania, the Communications Authority ANCOM announced. Telecom operators can add an extra fee of maximum five euro cents per minute for calls to the EU Member States, maximum 1.14 euro cents per minute for incoming calls, and no more than two euro cents for text messages sent in EU countries. Meanwhile, those who want to use the Internet might pay additional charges of up to five euro cents per MB. All additional costs don’t include VAT. According to ANCOM, if a supplier chooses to apply a surcharge, the difference between the domestic tariffs applied for services used outside the network and the applied surcharge shouldn’t go over the maximum regulated rates of EUR 0.19 per minute (without VAT) for outgoing voice calls, EUR 0.06 per minute (without VAT) for outgoing text messages, and EUR 0.20 per MB (without VAT) for data traffic. If they want to benefit from these services, prepaid card users must buy additional credit to cover the surcharge for roaming services. Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com