Plans to scrap roaming charges across the EU are to be rewritten ahead of their planned introduction next year on the orders of Jean-Claude Juncker; the head of the European Commission.
It was announced last year that roaming charges would be scrapped in 2017, helping to bring to an end one of the main issues for people travelling overseas.
Previously, anyone heading outside their home country faced the prospect of incurring excessive charges for mobile phone usage, leading to multiple examples of people embarking on their annual holiday only to be greeted by a phone bill running into three, and sometimes four, figures on their return.
The first stage of the change came into effect earlier this year with a reduction in the charges, which brought the cost of accessing data down by as much as 75% whilst also reducing the cost of calls and text messages.
The EU planned to reduce roaming charges still further from June next year by implementing a rule whereby a users domestic charges would apply regardless of where in the EU they were travelling.
However, when further details of the plans were revealed last week, it was announced that free roaming within the EU would be for a set amount of time rather than unlimited, with mobile phone companies only obliged to implement the cut for a minimum of 90 days a year or 30 consecutive days.
This was largely down to a desire to ‘strike the right balance’ and avoid a situation where people could sign up with a mobile phone company from overseas - such as Spain - to benefit from cheaper calls in their home country; safe in the knowledge that roaming charges wouldn’t apply.
The move hasn’t gone down well however, with consumer groups hitting out at what they said was plans to backtrack on a pledge to scrap the charges; suggesting that the EU had reacted to pressure from mobile phone companies who are set to lose out on the additional income generated by overseas roaming.
As such, the commission has now backtracked on the proposals, with a second hastily arranged statement stating that the draft plans has been withdrawn on the orders of Juncker - who hadn't seen them beforehand - and will now be discussed further before a final decision is taken.
Despite that, a spokesman insisted that ‘nothing changes’ in terms of the actual plans and that ‘contrary to some media reports, roaming charges are going to disappear entirely by June 2017’.