The EU has voted to agree on revised rules on the telecoms market which will end unpopular roaming surcharges for mobile phone calls and data use.
Spanish MEP Vera del Castillo, of the European People's Party and rapporteur of the telecoms report, said today's vote brings about an end to roaming charges.
"We have eliminated a type of tax on people who live in the EU and we have eliminated a barrier to small companies and institutions accessing the single market."
The Telecoms Single Market Regulation will put an end to roaming charges by mid-2017 and guarantee an open market.
Roaming fees for calling, sending text messages and using mobile internet abroad in the EU will be banned from 15 June 2017.
From 30 April 2016, roaming surcharges must not exceed 5c per minute for voice calls, 2c for text messages or 5c per megabyte of mobile internet use.
Earlier today, Theresa Griffin, a UK Labour Party MEP, welcomed the new legislation and pointed out that: "This vote will mean that people no longer have to worry about huge bills when they return home from holidays."
.@davidmurphyrte assesses the detail behind the EU vote to abolish roaming charges by the middle of 2017 https://t.co/oAzKnrqPd3
— RTÉ Business (@RTEbusiness) October 27, 2015
The EU has also adopted new legislation with regard to net neutrality.
The new law will oblige firms offering internet access to treat all traffic equally by not to blocking or slowing delivery of content, applications or services from selected senders or to selected receivers.
The only exceptions to this are if it is necessary to obey court orders, comply with laws, prevent network congestion or combat cyber-attacks.
If such traffic management measures are needed, they will have to be "transparent, non-discriminatory and proportionate" and may not last for longer than necessary.
An operator will be able to offer specialised services (such as the improved internet quality needed for certain services), but only on condition that this does not have an impact on general internet quality
