Irish people are using their mobiles abroad more than ever before.
Since EU roaming charges were abolished there's been a 200% increase in usage.
The new "Roam Like at Home" rules came into force on June 15th last year.
MEP Brian Hayes says it's a great example of how the EU can benefit people's everyday lives.
“The recently published figures by BEREC clearly shows that the abolition of roaming charges across the EU has been a success. Irish citizens are taking full advantage of the new “Roam Like at Home” rules which came into force on June 15th last year.
In the period April to June 2017, Irish citizens used 390,000GB of data while travelling in the EU. From July to September this figure dramatically increased to 1.24 million gigabytes. An increase of 218%.”
“The increased usage is not only data related. The number of SMS messages sent increased from 12.84 million in the 2nd quarter to 23.87 million in the 3rd quarter - an increase of 85%. The number of minutes spent on the phone also increased from 20.8 million minutes to 45.8 million minutes - an increase of 120%.”
The figures were published by the Body of European Regulators in Electronic Communications (BEREC).
