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Although roaming charges are to be abolished completely in the summer of 2017, roaming costs for Latvian mobile operators' clients who travel abroad will decrease fourfold already from April 30 next year, said Karins.

According to the EP's data, the roaming tariff is currently EUR 0.19 per minute, which will decrease to EUR 0.05 in April 2016. Likewise, the cost of one SMS will decrease from EUR 0.06 to EUR 0.02, while the cost of one megabyte data transfer – from EUR 0.20 to EUR 0.05. Therefore, once the roaming tariffs are abolished completely, these costs will be the same as in the person's home country.

"Already now, when I have to be abroad on a regular basis, and use a SIM card from a Latvian operator, I pay less than my colleagues from Latvia who use foreign SIM cards," said Karins. "We already have lower tariffs, and a fourfold reduction will follow soon."

Karins believes that there are no grounds for concerns that, taking into account the low cost of services in Latvia and the high prices abroad, Latvian operators could lose out. Before roaming tariffs are abolished, wholesale prices will be revised, said Karins. "We have included in the regulations several provisions that will protect Latvian operators if wholesale prices rise too much." The EP will do everything in its power to bring wholesale prices down, so Latvian operators do not have to raise local tariffs, added Karins.

The EP will take the final vote on the regulation during a plenary session in Strasbourg on October 28.