Free roaming between Romania and the Republic of Moldova, a dream that became reality following a meeting held by the prime ministers of the two countries, Viorica Dancila and Pavel Filip, during the past week. I told you on Friday that the idea of a eliminates roaming charges between Romania and the Republic of Moldova at a given moment, and the governments of the two countries, together with the mobile phone operators, chose December 1st as the first step for "liberation" and rapprochement.
On December 1, Romanians and Moldovans across the Prut will be able to benefit from free roaming between Romania and the Republic of Moldova, but here we are only talking about phone calls, which will be made with consumption from the monthly allowance, not with an additional cost. Offering free roaming calls between Romania and the Republic of Moldova is a first step towards the complete elimination of chlorine, which should happen, at least partially, starting in 2019.
December 1 brings free roaming for calls between Romania and the Republic of Moldova
Chiril Gaburici, the Minister of Economy and Infrastructure from the Republic of Moldova, confirms with the statement below this first for Romania and the neighboring country, something that should have been done a long time ago. It is interesting that the minister from the Republic of Moldova says that the operators there agree to give up roaming tariffs with Romania, although last week we were told that they are exactly against this idea, but it would seem that the situation is different.
We thought that we would be able to apply the local tariffs for roaming services this year, only that some additional discussions appeared from the Romanian authorities with the operators and we took more time to be able to solve these questions and additional discussions, to reach a common denominator that could satisfy all players and so we can implement. On December 1, we will have free calls between Moldova and Romania. This will be a first test work with operators on this topic. We have the availability of all operators. It is now up to the agencies to document this entire initiative. We wish that in the first half of 2019 we already have these preferential rates, or, as we call them within the ministry, local rates for citizens of the Republic of Moldova in Romania and vice versa, those from Romania, being in the Republic of Moldova, can call at their local rate.
Free roaming between Romania and the Republic of Moldova should be fully offered somewhere in the first part of 2019, if I understand correctly from the minister's statement, but still only for phone calls. I know that many Romanians and Moldovans who travel between the two countries would also like free internet traffic when they are roaming, but it seems that this will not happen soon, although it will definitely exist at some point in future.
