The European Union reached a preliminary deal on Tuesday to scrap mobile roaming charges across the 28-country bloc by June 2017 and to require telecoms operators such as Deutsche Telekom and Orange to treat all Internet traffic equally.

The draft agreement marks an important step in the EU's plan to overhaul the continent's telecoms market to boost growth and catch up with the United States and Asia.

"Under the agreement, roaming surcharges in the European Union will be abolished as of 15 June 2017," Latvia, which holds the rotating EU presidency, said in a statement after 12 hours of talks with EU lawmakers.

On the controversial issue of net neutrality, the EU plans to order telecoms operators to treat all Internet traffic equally and that blocking would only be allowed to counter cyber attacks or during peak periods.

"Agreements on services requiring a specific level of quality will be allowed, but operators will have to ensure the general quality of Internet access services," the Latvian statement said.

Companies such as Deutsche Telekom Orange and Telecom Italia had lobbied to have more leeway to tap into a potentially lucrative source of revenue, but Internet activists say this could create a two-speed Internet that benefits companies with deep pockets.

The draft agreement will have to be ratified by EU member states in the next six months when Luxembourg takes over the EU presidency on July 1.  (Reuters)

Source: www.businessworld.ie