Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash
Operators have extended a special agreement that allows “affordable” phone calls to and from Ukraine.
The EU Commission welcomed the twelve-month prolongation of the operators’ agreement allowing displaced refugees from Ukraine to stay connected across borders.
The Commission has facilitated the agreement between 22 European and seven Ukrainian operators to prolong the agreement, which was first signed last year, to mutually lower the rates they must sustain to connect calls across borders.
Affordable calls allow those seeking shelter in Europe to reach family and friends in Ukraine, and vice versa.
The Body of European regulators of electronic communications (BEREC) monitors the impact of the agreement.
The latest statistics demonstrates that the agreement has been efficient in allowing operators to provide affordable calls across borders. When it comes to inter-operator rates for cross-border calls, operators in the European Economic Area (EEA) that are part of the agreement are subject to significantly lower rates than those operators who have not signed it.
The Commission urges all operators to join the agreement.
In parallel, the Commission has been preparing to integrate Ukraine into the EU Roaming area, which would provide a more stable and longer-term solution.
In April 2023, the EU-Ukraine association committee adopted the Commission’s proposal for Ukraine to join the EU Roaming rules. The next step is for Ukraine to fully align their legislation with that of the EU and then for the Council of the European Union to adopt the final decision.
