EU4Digital launches feasibility study on international roaming area between Eastern partner countries and the European Union

The EU4Digital Facility has launched a feasibility study on establishing a common international roaming space between the Eastern partner countries and the EU Member States, to build on the expected signing of the Regional Roaming Agreement (RRA) among Eastern partnercountries, which is also facilitated by the EU4Digital team.

Source: https://eufordigital.eu/eu4digital-launches-feasibility-study-on-international-roamingarea-between-eastern-partner-countries-and-the-eu/

The EaP-EU roaming study was launched at a virtual meeting on 7 October 2020, during a side Source: https://eufordigital.eu/eu4digital-launches-feasibility-study-on-international-roamingevent held as part of the Steering Committee Meeting of the EU4Digital initiative, which ran area-between-eastern-partner-countries-and-the-eu/ from 5-9 October.

Over 50 participants joined the event, including members of the Roaming Expert Working Group (REWG), representatives of the Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications (BEREC), officials from the European Commission (DG CONNECT, DG NEAR), Harmonized Digital Market (HDM) Coordinators, EU Delegations and other interested stakeholders from the Eastern partner countries. The new activity to prepare the EaP-EU roaming study was introduced by the EU4Digital Telecom Rules stream leader, Andrejs Dombrovskis, who set out the scope and expected deliverables, a high-level work plan, stakeholder engagement approach, as well as key underlying considerations for successful delivery of the feasibility study.

The EaP-EU roaming study is a new topic under the Telecom Rules thematic area of the EU4Digital Facility. One of the underlying assumptions for further assessing the feasibility of a common EaP-EU roaming space is the signing of the Regional Roaming Agreement (RRA) among EaP countries, which is also being facilitated by the EU4Digital team. The signing ceremony of the RRA is expected to take place in late 2020 or early 2021. Looking further, should the common roaming space prove to be feasible, the EaP-EU study will aim to suggest the most appropriate legal, economic and technical option for implementation.