Addio, adieu, auf Wiedersehen, goodbye: The end of roaming begins this Saturday – publico

 
         

                 

                         
                     

                 

 
 

According to a statement from the National Communications Authority (Anacom), the additional price of a call during a trip to another EU Member State falls 77% from the current 5 cents per minute to 1.14 cents per minute (VAT value). Make a call on Roaming is replaced by a maximum cost of 19 cents per minute (domestic price plus 5 cents per minute excluding VAT value).

The SMS sent in roaming now have an additional maximum price of 2 cents. Receive a written message still does not contain any cost.

As for mobile data, which allow the use of the Internet, the additional price for megabyte (MB) down to 5 cents compared to the previous 20.

the descent takes place throughout the European Union and is in line with a decision taken by the European Commission in 2015, which envisions the complete elimination of costs roaming the June 15, 2017.

Until then, however, there is a long discussion to have between Brussels and operators on a fee that will be charged when a user exceeds the call “responsible use” of the service. Quantification of this abuse is still open.

Portuguese operators are not satisfied with the descent and the scheduled end of costs Roaming . In September 2015, the President of the US, Miguel Almeida, warned that the measure “will only encumber further the Portuguese consumers” because “there is a cost that must be paid” and that is associated with the presence of a large number of European tourists in the country. President of PT Portugal, Paulo Neves, provided the network overhead in areas such as the Algarve, since “a tourist will use the phone with fewer restrictions than if you were in a call on Roaming .” Mario Vaz, responsible for Vodafone, argued then that Brussels should “let the market work” instead of imposing the current solution.

Also the Portuguese regulator expressed reservations about the change. Fátima Barros, president of Anacom, warned of the risk of a situation where “those traveling, pay for those traveling”, since the Portuguese travel a lot less than the North Europeans, who tend to use more and more South networks.