Turkey, Macedonia, Serbia, Montenegro and Albania agreed to eliminate mobile roaming charges for their citizens travelling to the other countries beginning in 2015, officials said.
The agreement stipulates that roaming for text messaging and internet use will also be eliminated.
Officials said charges are significantly higher in the Balkans than the EU and have caused the greatest number of customer complaints. Mobile users in the Balkans pay up to five times more for voice services, up to three times more for text messages and up to 30 times more for mobile internet use.
“Consequently, the countries came up with the idea of creating a Balkan roaming-free area,” the Agency for Electronic Communication of Macedonia (AEC) said in a statement to SETimes.
The agreement foresees Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo will also become part of the Balkan roaming-free zone.
Officials also said the zone will begin next year because it is necessary for the countries to harmonize their legislation and for local phone operators to adapt to the change.
Taken from: http://www.setimes.com/cocoon/setimes/xhtml/en_GB/features/setimes/features/2014/09/16/feature-01
