The agreement will come into force once each country has ratified it.
Background: Regulators around the world have taken steps to reduce international roaming charges. Due to the nature of roaming, these initiatives have generally taken the form of international agreements between countries. Only in the European Union has there been a comprehensive regulation of mobile roaming, which eventually resulted in the removal of surcharges in 2017 under the Roam-Like-At-Home regime.
Mercosur follows the EU’s path: Last week, the four countries which form the Mercosur commercial agreement (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay) signed an agreement to end roaming surcharges for users within the Mercosur space. This will affect a population of 260m citizens, with circa 300m mobile subscriptions for more than 185m users.
What this means in practice: The agreement will require operators across the four countries to strike commercial agreements that respect the local tariffs of each user travelling within the Mercosur area. For the agreement to come into force, the parliaments of all the four countries will now need to ratify it. In September 2019, regulators and operators of the four countries will meet in Asuncion, Paraguay, to define the details of the implementation while parliaments proceed to ratification.
