The EU is nearing an agreement on giving mobile customers a fair-use allowance for roaming in the EU at the same cost as national communications, Reuters reports. The "roam like at home" option put forward by Latvia, which holds the rotating EU presidency, garnered the support of most member states at a Council meeting last week, EU diplomats said.
A first draft of the legislation is expected in around two weeks, the report said, although it could still undergo further changes. Once member states in the Council agree on a position, they can negotiate with MEPs and the European Commission to arrive at a final version.
According to the proposal, operators would have to provide data to consumers abroad at domestic rates up to a limited allowance, which has not been specified. Beyond this allowance, operators will not be able to charge consumers more than the maximum wholesale prices, currently EUR 0.05 per minute or MB of data. Latvia's paper says the proposed system would avoid the situation where retail roaming prices would be lower than wholesale costs.
