Moldovans traveling to EU member states to pay lower roaming rates

Moldovans traveling to European Union member states will pay lower roaming rates. The authorities plan to fully remove these charges in the next five years. A draft law to this effect was voted by 75 lawmakers in the second reading today.

The document was drafted by the Ministry of Economic Development and Digitalization and aims at harmonizing international mobile communication costs between Moldova and EU states, thus ensuring their substantial cutting. This creates the premises for including our country in the EU Roaming at National Rates area (Roam like at home).

Therefore, the authors proposed introducing a cap on tariffs for calls, SMS, and mobile data usage in roaming mode for users Moldova traveling to EU member states. Specifically, the tariff will be equal to the national rate.

As a result, according to estimates, consumers will save between 30 and 70 per cent of current roaming costs, depending on the type of services used. According to the document, this capping will be done progressively, aiming to reach a level comparable to the one within the European Union, in accordance with European roaming legislation. In the long term, roaming charges will be completely eliminated.

At the same time, the authors emphasize transparency and informing of consumers. Respectively, providers are required to send users automatic notifications when they enter a roaming area and inform them clearly and in detail about the costs of each service provided and the applicable consumption limits. In the context, some provisions of the draft refer to the creation of a mechanism to monitor roaming rates and providers which violate the law will be sanctioned.

The legislative initiative also contains measures to stimulate investments in electronic communications infrastructure, including in 4G and 5G networks.

On January 1, 2024, the roaming rates between Moldova and EU member states were reduced after an Agreement signed between the country and the EU had been  ratified. Due to this, a significant increase in the use of roaming services provided to users by electronic communication providers, both in our country and in EU countries, was recorded.

Last year, the traffic of calls made by users in European countries calling users from Moldova exceeded 10.8 million minutes. Also, during 2024, Moldovans who traveled used over a billion GB, threefold more than in 2023.