Romanian telecom authority Ancom announced that the roaming data (MB/GB) allowance in the EU/EEA without additional fees grows for most tariff plans as the wholesale regulated price was lowered as of 1 January 2020, according to Telecompaper. From the same date, if the fair usage limits for specific roaming services in the EU/EEA are reached, the surcharges that may be applied for the subsequent consumption decrease as follows: the data surcharge drops by approximately 22 percent to EUR 3.5 per GB from EUR 4.5 per GB (without VAT), while the incoming call surcharge diminishes by approximately 7 percent to EUR 0.79 per minute from EUR 0.85.
For 2020, the maximum surcharge RCS&RDS is authorised to charge for roaming incoming calls in EEA decreases to EUR 0.79 per minute.
Cases when roaming data surcharges apply
Providers may apply a surcharge even if the included traffic has not been entirely used once the fair usage limit for data roaming is reached. The surcharge will not exceed EUR 3.5 per GB (EUR 0.35 per MB) as of 1 January.
Fair usage data volume allowance in roaming in EU/EEA from 1 January 2020
For the tariff plans (prepaid cards, subscriptions, add-ons) which include unlimited data traffic and those whose calculated price per GB is below EUR 3.5, customers can use the following amount of data without additional costs, expressed in GB, when roaming in EEA: double the number resulted from the retail price for mobile services during a billing period divided by EUR 3.5, Ancom said.
For the prepaid cards without included data resources (with the payment by consumption unit, per MB/GB), customers can initially use the following amount of data, without additional costs, expressed in GB, when roaming in EEA: remaining available credit on the prepaid card when entering roaming in EU/EEA divided by EUR 3.5, according to Telecompaper.
Calculator of “Roam like at home” data limit: Ancom app
Ancom said it also created a widget-type app to allow end-users to easier estimate the data volume they may use without surcharge when roaming in the EU/EEA. The application was updated with the EUR 3.5 per GB tariff, valid from 1 January. The app displays relevant results for all the users of tariff plans with roaming access, except for those of RCS&RDS, an operator authorised to apply roaming surcharges from the first consumption unit, according to Telecompaper.
