EU facilitates the use of mobiles on European water

New rules have been adopted by the European Commission which will make it easier for passengers and crew on ships in the EU’s territorial to make phone calls or send and receive SMSs even while they are out of the range of land-based mobile phone networks. The new rules, will pave the way for innovative applications such as remote monitoring of containers stored on-board.

According to EU Digital Agenda Commissioner, Neelie Kroes, Tens of millions of people who travel and work on ships anywhere in European territorial waters will be able to use their mobile phones without problems of interference as a result of the new rules just adopted by the Commission.

The Commission has come to a conclusion that the new rules will put to an end to the previous patchwork of 27 different sets of national legislation on mobile phone coverage on-board cruise liners, cargo ships and ferries in European territorial waters. It creates legal certainty for telecoms operators that wish to offer mobile services to their customers.