EU Telecommunication Companies Free Telephone Roaming Fees To Ukraine

JAKARTA - Deutsche Telekom and a group of other top European telecommunications companies have agreed to cut wholesale roaming fees charged to their Ukrainian counterparts by three months. This is done to help millions of Ukrainian refugees to stay in touch with their families at home.

This move by telecommunications companies, Orange, Vodafone and 20 others, is the latest initiative by western industry. In fact, more than a dozen telecommunications companies have now allowed free calls to Ukraine and waived roaming charges in recent weeks.

Wholesale roaming fees are paid by telecom operators to counterparts in other EU countries.

The European MVNO mobile virtual network operator association and the three Ukrainian mobile operators also joined the initiative.

The EU telecommunications service providers agreed to reduce wholesale roaming fees and "termination" rates, which telecom operators charge for completing outgoing calls on their networks, to a fee rate, and also to cut termination rates for calls from Ukrainian numbers.

European Commission Vice President Margrethe Vestager called on other companies to do the same.

"We encourage more similar actions that can make a real difference in these extraordinary circumstances," Vestager said in a statement quoted by Reuters.

EU lawmaker Angelika Winzig, who proposed the matter through the European Parliament, welcomed the telecom companies' promise.

Other companies that have signed this agreement are Bouygues, Fastweb, Iliad, KPN, Liberty Global, MasMovil, Polkomtel, Proximus, Telefonica, Telenor, Telia Company, Three Group, and TIM.