Roaming charges in the EU for making calls, sending SMS or surfing online fall on Saturday as a prelude to their abolition from the middle of next year.

As of 30 April 2016, users of mobile devices will only pay a small charge on top of their domestic prices: up to EUR 0.05 per minute of outgoing call made, EUR 0.02 per SMS sent, and EUR 0.05 per MB of data when travelling in the EU.

This maximum roaming charge is about 25% of the current roaming caps for calls made and data, and 33% of the current roaming cap for SMS.

These charges will apply until 15 June 2017, when Europeans will start  paying the same price irrespective of whether they use their mobile devices at home or somewhere else in the EU.

“This is not only about Europeans saving money, this is about bringing down barriers in the Digital Single Market,”European Commission Vice-President Andrus Ansip commented in a statement.

Prices that consumers pay for roaming across calls, SMS and data have decreased by more than 80% when the EU first took action to tackle excessive roaming charges. Data roaming is now up to 91% cheaper compared to 2007, and the volume of the data roaming market has grown by 630%, according to European Commission data.

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