Taking into account technological developments on telecommunications markets and changes in consumer demands and habits, and in order to stimulate the investment necessary for reaching the connectivity targets for 2025, the European Commission proposed the Electronic Communications Code on 14 September 2016. The Code establishes common EU rules and objectives on regulating the telecom industry. It defines how providers of networks and/or services can be regulated by national authorities.

The ITRE Committee voted to open trilogue negotiations (a decision confirmed in October II 2017 plenary session) and a first meeting with the Council has taken place. Parliament and Council (EU co-legislators) provisionally agreed on a reform of EU telecom rules that aims to boost the investments needed to make 5G connectivity available for all EU citizens by 2020, enhance protection of users and introduce a cap on disproportionate fees on calls between EU countries. According to the provisional deal, the fees for intra-EU calls are capped to 19 cents for phone calls and 6 cents for text messages.