Europe puts an end to mobile roaming charges

The European Parliament passed a law that will put an end to mobile roaming fees by 2017. The law was approved as part of a larger legislative package that also sought to strengthen network neutrality protections across the European Union, but which failed to close major loopholes that could be exploited to create Internet "fast lanes." The ban on roaming charges enjoyed broad support within the European Parliament, and was widely expected to pass. Under the measure, it will be illegal for telecommunication companies to charge roaming fees for calls, text messages, and data as of June 15th, 2017. Consumers will instead pay the same rates they would in their home countries. As of April 30th, 2016, roaming charges will be capped at €0.05 per minute for outgoing calls, €0.02 for texts, and €0.05 for every megabyte of data. A cap for incoming calls will be determined at a later date.