To prevent Ukrainians from spending money on additional communication charges in Europe and Europeans from doing the same in Ukraine, the EU Council has approved a proposal and given the green light for a bilateral solution on mobile roaming. This was announced on his Telegram channel by Mykhailo Fedorov, head of the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine.
“The prices for calls to relatives in Europe will go down for Ukrainians. Operators will not charge UAH 30 per minute of conversation. There will be no need to change SIM cards when travelling in Europe. In addition, consumer rights will be protected in accordance with EU rules,” he wrote in his post.
Mykhailo Fedorov added that this is not the final step, the final decision must be approved by the Association’s Trade Committee. However, the entire team of the Ministry of Digital Transformation, the National Commission for the State Regulation of Electronic Communications, Radio Frequency Spectrum and Postal Services, operators and the telecom regulator are working together to ensure that Ukraine joins the Roam like at home zone as soon as possible.
The Minister of Digital Transformation thanked his European colleagues for their continued support and added that Ukraine’s integration into the EU continues. We recently wrote that the EU has extended free roaming for Ukraine. Thanks to this decision, Ukrainians will be able to continue to communicate with their loved ones who currently live in the EU at affordable tariffs of the European free roaming zone.
The joint statement of Ukrainian mobile operators and the European Union was extended for another 6 months during a meeting between the Government of Ukraine and the European Commissioners. This period is not final, and the statement may be extended further. It was then that the EU representatives confirmed their readiness to approve the updated Annex 17-3, which was another step towards free roaming with the EU Roam like at home on a permanent basis. For the period of wartime, Ukraine was exempted from fees for participation in EU programmes.