European Commission head Jean-Claude Juncker has ordered officials to draw
up new plans for the EU's landmark free mobile phone roaming policy after it
ran into fierce criticism for a proposed 90-day limit.
"The Commission services have, on the instruction of President Juncker,
withdrawn the draft and are working on a new version," a statement on the
Commission's Digital Single Market webpage said.
The Commission announced the original "free roaming" plans with huge fanfare
in early 2015, but when it unveiled the details this week consumer groups
were outraged by the limit to just 90 days of free roaming a year.
They charged that the Commission, the EU's executive arm, had caved into the
powerful telecoms companies for whom roaming charges have been a lucrative
source of extra income.
Today's U-turn comes just days after the European Commission had insisted
that its proposals really did end roaming charges as it had promised to do.
"Let me be very clear, we have put an end to roaming," Mr Juncker's
spokesman Margaritis Schinas said on Wednesday.
"Roaming means travelling, means moving around the European Union, going on
holiday. The Europeans who travel do so on an average of 12 days per year,"
Mr Schinas said.
"The Commission with our guidelines have gone much further by abolishing
roaming charges for at least 90 days per year," he added.
Ending roaming charges was flagged as a key step in creating a single
telecoms market in Europe, one of the Commission's strategic objectives.
