The European Commission proposed to include joint roaming in the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the EU.
When such a decision is made, Ukrainians will no longer pay any additional fees for using mobile phones while traveling in the European Union. Travelers from the EU will receive the same rights when visiting Ukraine.
The proposal must now be considered by the Council of the European Union. After the agreement of the Council of the EU, the Ukraine-EU Trade Committee must make a joint decision on providing such roaming.
The speed of Ukraineʼs integration into the European Unionʼs internal roaming market will depend on the pace of implementation of relevant EU legislation in Ukraine.
- In April 2022, Ukrainian and European operators signed a joint statement with the assistance of the National Commission for Electronic Communications, the European Commission, the European Parliament and BEREC. Three Ukrainian mobile operators joined the application: Kyivstar, Vodafone and lifecell, as well as 52 mobile and 19 fixed European operators. Therefore, even with their tariffs and SIM cards, Ukrainians can use the Internet in the European Union and call other Ukrainian numbers.
- However, these are only temporary measures, since the operators themselves determine the number of minutes and Internet to provide subscribers for free, and the quality of communication is also worse than it should be.
- On February 3, 2023, European and Ukrainian operators agreed to extend affordable roaming for Ukrainians in the European Union for another six months.