According to the Director General of DG Connect there will be no postponement to the end of roaming and operators who do not comply will be sanctioned
Roaming or not roaming, this is the question. Will come or not its abolition, already set by the European Union for next June 15, 2017? According to the latest news it would seem so. To affirm it is Roberto Viola, director general of DG Connect, the Community body that deals with the development of a single digital market.
Roberto Viola has in fact denied the latest news, circulated a few hours ago, according to which the end of roaming could have slipped another 12 months. Let's try to understand it. Everything stems from the guidelines published by Berec, the Body of European Regulators of Electronic Communications. Berec's report provides for a one-year derogation only for operators who will not be able to bear the costs of introducing the new regulations. Translated into economic terms, the postponement can be requested if the overall losses are greater than 3%. For all others, there will be no extension.
Sanctions to those who will not comply with the new legislation
Customers of large mobile operators, which in Italy are Vodafone, TIM and Wind-Tre, can breathe a big sigh of relief. From mid-June they will be able to call, send messages and surf the net at no extra cost, compared to the tariff stipulated with the operator to which they belong, within all 27 countries of the European Union. The extension of one year will affect mainly mobile virtual operators. And the reason is quite simple: they pay roaming to the European operators for their customers and do not benefit at all from the incoming tourism. Consequently, with the abolition of roaming, they would have some difficulty in sustaining the costs of the Digital Single Market and ensure the service also outside Italy. If the big mobile operators don't comply with the new regulations, a penalty could be triggered.