The European Parliament has approved a new plan that will see the end of mobile roaming charges across the countries of the European Union. Beginning on June 15, 2017, carriers will no longer be able to charge customers for roaming calls, texts, or data usage while they travel throughout the EU.

From the BBC:

The aim of the ban, in part, is to prevent consumers being caught out by huge bills when downloading films or other data during their European holidays. There have been a number of cases when mobile users have been landed with bills for hundreds of euros or pounds.

In the interim, there will be a cap placed on the amount carriers can charge roaming customers for each call, text, and megabyte. Starting April 30, 2016 calls will cost no more than €0.05, texts no more than €0.02, and every extra megabyte of data will cost travelers no more than €0.05. Estimates say that these caps could reduce EU roaming charges by as much as 75 percent.

The plan had already been subject to a number of votes, with this week's vote being the final one.

Source: BBC