International Roaming

The International Roaming Working Group (IR WG) focuses on roaming related matters as well on intra-EU communications. The IR WG examines roaming and intra-European Union (EU) communications across EU borders (as well as Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein). It monitors, supervises and gives guidance to stakeholders on harmonised implementation of the Roaming Regulation and the Regulation laying down measures concerning retail charges for regulated intra-EU communications.

BEREC contribution to the EU/Moldovan lower roaming prices

Working Group Co-chairs

Ioanna Choudalaki

EETT, Greece

Elisabeth Felber

RTR, Austria

Work in 2025

In 2025, the IR WG will continue working on related topics based on the Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications (BEREC) Work Programme 2025.

BEREC Opinion about the functioning of the Roaming Regulation

The European Commission (EC) shall, after consulting BEREC, submit, by 30 June 2025, the first assessment report on the functioning of the Roaming Regulation to the European Parliament and to the Council, followed, if appropriate, by a legislative proposal to amend this Regulation. BEREC intends to provide its opinion to the EC, taking into account the assessment criteria required by this Article. Data that BEREC has collected until the time of the preparation of the report will be used for BEREC’s analysis. BEREC will start preparing this analysis in 2024.

31st International roaming benchmark data and monitoring Report

According to the Roaming Regulation, BEREC has to report on technical matters within its competence. The data to be collected by BEREC are to be notified to the EC once a year. On the basis of the data collected, BEREC also has to report regularly on the evolution of pricing and consumption patterns in the Member States, both for domestic and roaming services, the evolution of actual wholesale roaming rates for balanced and unbalanced traffic and the relationship between retail prices, wholesale charges and wholesale costs for roaming services. BEREC will assess how closely those elements relate to each other. The BEREC Roaming Data Report will include an Annex reporting on the evolution of roaming prices and volumes for the Western Balkan region.

6th Intra-EU communications Benchmark Report

In 2025, BEREC is planning to publish the 6th Benchmark Report (including data from 2024) on the findings of the data collection. Using the collected data, BEREC will also publish an annex to the report with the updated BEREC benchmarking for the derogation assessments.

5th Ukraine monitoring report

Following the ongoing war against Ukraine, launched by Russia with the invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022, BEREC has closely followed the telecommunications sector’s response to the crisis and welcomed the measures voluntarily provided by EU operators. According to the Joint Statement, signed by both the European Economic Area (EEA) and Ukrainian operators, BEREC is responsible for monitoring the implementation.

Update of BEREC Guidelines on Intra EU communications

According to the new EU framework, from 1 January 2025, providers may, on a voluntary basis, comply with the obligation not to apply different retail prices for intra-EEA communications. To that end, the EC shall adopt an implementing act on fair use based on typical usage patterns and anti-fraud measures by 31 December 2024 after consulting BEREC. The BEREC work on the BEREC Opinion will be launched as soon as a text is shared by the EC with BEREC.

Why is this important?

The Roam Like At Home principle is a crucial cornerstone of EU Single Market. Since its implementation, the Roaming Regulation has empowered and enabled citizens to communicate easily without any extra-costs when traveling across Europe. In addition, the new Roaming Regulation brought new rules for Quality of Service, increased transparency for EU citizens and access to emergency services, while roaming.

Read more about Roaming