Press Releases

Roaming charges applicable in the EU starting 30 April 2016

20.04.2016

 
On 30 April 2016, the last intermediate step regulated by the European Commission before the full removal of roaming charges within the European Union on 15 June 2017, will enter into force. Thus, in this period, the Romanian users who chose the basic tariff plans for  the roaming services (Eurotariffs) will communicate while travelling in the EU at the same costs as at home, to which the operators may add an additional fee of maximum 5 eurocents/minute for outgoing calls to EU Member States, maximum 1.14 eurocents/minute for incoming calls, maximum 2 eurocents per text message (SMS) sent towards EU Member States, whereas internet access may be additionally charged by maximum 5 eurocents/MB (VAT being not included in these fees).
 
Charging roaming services in the EU
Where a provider chooses to charge a fee, either for all roaming services (outgoing calls, incoming calls, SMS sent, data), or for certain services only, the national off-net tariff plus the applied additional charges cannot exceed the following maximum regulated tariffs: 0.19 EUR/minute (VAT not included) for outgoing calls, 0.06 EUR (VAT not included) per sent text message (SMS), respectively 0.20 EUR/MB (VAT not included) for data traffic.
WARNING! In order to benefit from services in roaming, prepaid card users must top up an additional amount from which the additional charges for using roaming services could be deducted.
 
Enforcement of additional charges for roaming services
For example, a Romanian user benefits, while in the country, from a subscription including:
§ 200 minutes on-net + 100 national minutes + 100 SMS + 500 MB mobile internet access
and upon their consumption, he/she pays:
§ 0.16 EUR/minute (VAT not included), on-net/off-net, 0.05 EUR/SMS (VAT not included, on-net/off-net), respectively 0.16 EUR/MB
1. When making a 10-minute on-net call, while roaming in another EU Member State, the user will be charged based on the standard tariff plan (Eurotariff) and on the operator' charging the maximum additional charge, as follows:
§ if he/she has not already consumed the 200 minutes available on-net – the 10 minutes may be deducted from these, and the user pays only the 0.05 EUR/minute * 10 minutes, i.e. 0.50 EUR (VAT not included)
§ if the user has already consumed the 200 minutes available on-net – the 10 minutes will be charged by the 0.16 EUR/minute (VAT not included) + the 0.05 EUR/minute (VAT not included) additional charge, but not exceeding the regulated 0.19 EUR/minute (VAT not included) tariff; therefore the user will pay 0.19 EUR/minute * 10 minutes, i.e. a total of 1.90 EUR (VAT not included)
This is also the manner of charging both calls to a user of another operator in Romania (off-net calls), and SMS to such categories of users, as well as internet access services.
2. When making a local 10-minute call in the visited country or to another EU Member State, this will be charged as follows:
§ the 0.16 EUR/minute (VAT not included) national off-net tariff + the additional 0.05 EUR/minute (VAT not included) charge, but not exceeding the maximum regulated tariff of 0.19 EUR/minute (VAT not included); therefore the user pays 0.19 EUR/minute * 10 minutes, i.e. a total of 1.90 EUR (VAT not included)
3. When receiving a 10-minute call, irrespective of the call origin (from Romania, from the visited country, from another EU Member State or even from a non-EU Member State), this will be charged as follows:
§ the 0.0114 EUR/minute (VAT not included) additional charge * 10 minutes, i.e. will pay a total of 0.114 EUR (VAT not included).
 
Special roaming tariffs
The operators may make available to their customers lower tariffs or different tariff plans, such as the ones in the special offers for holiday seasons. Therefore, the users should consider their provider’s offer before leaving the country, in order to choose the best tariff plan for their communication needs.
For trips outside the European Union, ANCOM recommends the users to check the tariffs established by each operator for the countries they intend to visit, as the tariffs may be considerably higher in some cases.   
Further details on the use and costs of the roaming service are available on the Authority’s website, here.

 

For complaints on charging roaming calls, the users may address ANCOM here.

 

Roaming
 
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