Lower roaming prices from April 30

From April 30 of this year, a transitional period for roaming prices begins, lasting until June 14, 2017, when the complete abolition of roaming charges or fees for ‘roaming’ on foreign networks is planned, HAKOM emphasizes.

From April 30 of this year, the EU roaming regulation comes into effect, which determines the prices of communication services via mobile phones in the EU/EEA based on the prices of domestic services in each country increased by roaming charges, HAKOM reported on Friday.

– From April 30 of this year, a transitional period for roaming prices begins, lasting until June 14, 2017, when the complete abolition of roaming charges or fees for ‘roaming’ on foreign networks is planned, emphasizes the Croatian Regulatory Authority for Network Activities (HAKOM).

This transitional period with lower roaming prices from April 30 of this year applies to EU countries as well as Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway. They also explain that this means that roaming prices will depend on the national tariff chosen by each user and will be increased by roaming charges within the EU.

– This means that every Croatian user in roaming will pay for the service according to the tariff they have contracted with their operator for domestic traffic, which their operator will increase by the appropriate roaming charge, HAKOM states.

Thus, under the new rules, for outgoing calls in roaming, the price of calls to other national mobile networks will be used as the basis for calculation according to the tariff price that the user has contracted, to which a charge of up to 47 lipa will be added. For incoming calls in roaming, since incoming calls are not charged in national traffic, the price will only be increased by a charge of up to 10 lipa. Other roaming charges that operators may charge in addition to the regular price amount to up to 19 lipa for an SMS message and up to 47 lipa for one MB (megabyte) of data traffic.

– Regardless of domestic service prices, if the operator charges a roaming fee, the highest price of the service that the user pays must not exceed the previous 1.81 kuna/minute for calls, 0.57 kuna for an SMS message, and 1.90 kuna for one MB of data traffic, HAKOM emphasizes.

Announcing that the abolition of roaming charges, or roaming services at the same prices as if domestic services were used (eng. roam like at home), will come into effect in mid-June next year, HAKOM states that a prerequisite for this is the adoption of implementing acts at the EU level regarding the appropriate wholesale market and the criteria for fair use and sustainability of the new model for abolishing roaming charges.

– These acts need to be adopted in the European legislative procedure, in which HAKOM will participate as the Croatian representative among European regulators, while continuing to protect the interests of the Croatian market, which is characterized by a large influx of tourists from EU countries during the summer months, so that Croatian users do not suffer consequences in terms of increased domestic prices or reduced service quality due to decisions at the European level, HAKOM warns.

HAKOM warns users not to answer calls from unknown international numbers

HAKOM warned mobile phone users on Friday not to answer calls from numbers (numbering) +882 13800xxx, as they are most likely, they say, attempts to defraud users.

This was noticed by some users on Thursday, April 21, in the network of one of the mobile electronic communications operators, although HAKOM does not specify which operator it is.

– These were short calls that appeared to the user as missed calls, and a return call was expected. The operator, in cooperation with HAKOM, immediately disabled access to the specified numbers to prevent damage and uncontrolled costs that calling such numbers may cause, HAKOM explains.

HAKOM advises users not to answer such calls and calls from other ‘strange’ numbers but to report them immediately to their operator or HAKOM, “so that attempts at fraud and unwanted costs can be stopped and prevented as soon as possible.”