Calling abroad to become much cheaper as from May 2019

“Europeans will soon be able to call family members in a different member state without having to keep count of every second that ticks by.” MEP Anneleen Van Bossuyt is pleased that the costs of international calls within the European Union are finally becoming cheaper. A telephone call to a different member state will be allowed to cost no more than 19 euro cents a minute, and a text message may cost a maximum of 6 euro cents. “Due to a gap in the legislation, the absurd situation arose that Europeans on holiday abroad could call each other with no additional costs, but if you called your holiday destination from your home, costs piled up very quickly. Europe is finally straightening this out,” says Anneleen Van Bossuyt, who is the chair of the Consumer Protection parliamentary committee.

Ever more trade

With this legislation, Europe is clearing an important hurdle in the unification of the Digital Internal Market. “Ever more trade is taking place among European member states. For companies that are active in multiple member states, telecommunication costs can become very high. This legislation promises to improve matters. Over 19 million Europeans aged between 20 and 64 live in a different European member state. They will soon be able to call their family without having to keep count of every second that ticks by,” says MEP Anneleen Van Bossuyt.

Fast mobile internet

In addition, the development of a European 5G network - super-fast mobile internet - is well under way. “To ensure that 5G is a success, agreements are needed among the member states. All sorts of new applications, such as artificial intelligence and autonomous vehicles, will make use of fast mobile internet. This needs to operate smoothly among the member states, and technical agreements will be necessary in order to achieve that. After all, we cannot countenance the possibility that your autonomous car suddenly stops working at the German border because of different protocols. A full-fledged European 5G network must prevent such situations,” Anneleen Van Bossuyt concludes.