EU telecoms commissioner Viviane Reding has declared an end to the "roaming rip-off"
Lower EU roaming charges start today
/v3-uk/news/1964353/lower-eu-roaming-charges-start
01 Jul 2009, Phil Muncaster , V3
New lower European Union roaming charges brought in by the European Commission (EC) come into effect today, slashing the price of making a call from abroad to 33p per minute.
The new charges are €0.11 (9.4p) for sending a text, and caps of €0.39 (33p) for making a call and €0.15 (13p) for receiving a call when abroad.
The directive also imposes per-second billing after 30 seconds for roaming calls made when abroad, and from the first second for calls received abroad. A cut-off mechanism has been introduced once the bill reaches €50 (£42) to avoid "bill shocks", said the EC.
"From today, all Europeans making calls or sending texts with their mobiles can experience the EU's single market without borders," said EU telecoms commissioner Viviane Reding.
"The roaming rip-off is now coming to an end, thanks to the determined action of the EC, the European Parliament and all 27 EU member states."
Data charges have also been cut, with a new wholesale cap of €1 (85p) per megabyte, falling to €0.80 (68p) in 2010 and €0.50 (43p) in 2011.
The new rules build on the first EU Roaming Regulation and will last until summer 2012. The European Parliament and Council have asked the EC to report on the new rules by summer 2010, after which time the EC could propose further cuts.
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Do you agree?
Roaming Rip-Off Prevails
I recently had a text from T-Mobile to say that they intended to comply with the EC directive. However, due to the fall in the Pound relative to the Euro, their charges would actually rise. Some deal!!
Posted by Richard Mansfield, 01 Jul 2009
Progress on roaming, but still confusing in the UK.
[Note: The following includes a plug to my own site].
Viviane Reding and the EU have made good strides into reducing mobile phone roaming charges, but the cost of using the mobile internet is still very confusing for most mobile phone users in the UK.
Users don't understand the charging structures and there is still a significant variance in the costs applicable on the different tariffs.
For example, the cost for transferring 1MB of data per day for a month from a mobile phone ranges from £6/month to £210/month.
MobileMeg (http://www.mobilemeg.com) has been created to help reduce this confusion and provide clarity on the cost of the mobile internet.
The site includes a guide on mobile data services; a comparison of over 200 of the mobile phone price plans used in the UK, and a personal usage calculator to help estimate data charges.
Posted by Peter Gross, 06 Jul 2009