Brussels backtracks on mobile roaming limits

European Union citizens will be able to use their phones abroad for as long as they like without incurring roaming fees, after all. Brussels executed a public U-turn in a desperate attempt to rescue a policy that was once held up as a tangible example of the EU’s benefit to ordinary citizens only to become a source of consumer ire. The cause of anger was a European Commission proposal from September that would have limited to 90 days a year the period for which mobile phone users would be spared roaming charges in Europe. Amid outrage from MEPs and consumer groups, the commission on Wednesday introduced a new proposal that scrapped the unpopular 90-day limit. It also includes measures to root out potential abuse of the ban on roaming charges in an effort to placate telecoms companies, which have complained bitterly about the loss of roaming fees.