# EU bans Mobile Roaming Charges from 2017



## Hudswell (May 14, 2010)

Whilst obviously directed at travellers within the EU will this also be a bonus to expats? We still maintain a UK mobile contract which of course entails roaming charges for use in Cyprus and elsewhere outside of the UK, I am assuming that from 2017 my contract will attract the same terms and conditions throughout the EU as they do in the UK...is my contracted free call minutes, SMS and Data packages...

Brussels bans roaming charges on phone calls and texts anywhere in Europe | Daily Mail Online


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## David_&_Letitia (Jul 8, 2012)

Hudswell said:


> Whilst obviously directed at travellers within the EU will this also be a bonus to expats? We still maintain a UK mobile contract which of course entails roaming charges for use in Cyprus and elsewhere outside of the UK, I am assuming that from 2017 my contract will attract the same terms and conditions throughout the EU as they do in the UK...is my contracted free call minutes, SMS and Data packages...
> 
> Brussels bans roaming charges on phone calls and texts anywhere in Europe | Daily Mail Online


I wouldn't normally believe things written in the Daily Mail, but the BBC seems to verify this! 

Mobile phones: Data roaming charges will be abolished - BBC News

This will be good news for us in Cyprus, where charges are extortionate, but I wonder if there are even better deals to be had from countries like Germany rather than UK?


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## Baywatch (Mar 30, 2014)

David_&_Letitia said:


> I wouldn't normally believe things written in the Daily Mail, but the BBC seems to verify this!
> 
> Mobile phones: Data roaming charges will be abolished - BBC News
> 
> This will be good news for us in Cyprus, where charges are extortionate, but I wonder if there are even better deals to be had from countries like Germany rather than UK?


I think all experts in this field agree that costs for calls and data will go up to compensate the providers for the ban on roaming. 

And reading a newsletter from a Swedish provider, they state that calls made from outside Sweden will be charged per minute even if you today have a flat-fee contract that gives you unlimited calls to all networks in Sweden


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## The Bond (Mar 4, 2017)

Hudswell said:


> Whilst obviously directed at travellers within the EU will this also be a bonus to expats? We still maintain a UK mobile contract which of course entails roaming charges for use in Cyprus and elsewhere outside of the UK, I am assuming that from 2017 my contract will attract the same terms and conditions throughout the EU as they do in the UK...is my contracted
> 
> This will happen either June or July, but already whilst not putting the prices up some providers in UK are limiting the data from a said contract ie you may have unlimited data but limited to say 4gb when roaming, this applying to people who have paygo as well, I will be using a Romanian sim which gives a much better deal and importantly they are not leaving the EU.


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## Davetheeagle (Jun 5, 2014)

Cyprus has some of the cheapest mobile costs in teh EU so why bother?


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## The Bond (Mar 4, 2017)

Hi Dave,
If you can recommend a particular deal it would be much appreciated, am looking for mainly data, at the moment I have 5gb per month on payg(no contract) sim for approx 18 euro a month, possible with a cyprus sim ?

Cheers
John


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## Davetheeagle (Jun 5, 2014)

Look at MTN and CYTA pages, MTN Smart packages are good.


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## carlm_7 (Nov 17, 2016)

Davetheeagle said:


> Cyprus has some of the cheapest mobile costs in teh EU so why bother?


I have to disagree on that one, their prices are extortionate for what you get in terms of minutes, texts and data.

For example Sim only MTN 4G Smart plan, unlimited mins & txts with just 3GB of data for 50 euros. The equivalent in UK will be around £20 or less.

If UK data roaming charges are abolished then using your UK sim abroad will be the way forward. I use my £23 a month sim from Three (unlimited mins, texts & 30GB data) here and would use it long term if I was able to phone Cyprus numbers from it.


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