Reding slams mobile operators again

Viviane Reding has revealed her plans for further roaming charge reductions

EU Commissioner for information society and media Viviane Reding has announced further roaming call price reductions for all 27 member states in the EU. From 30 August, customers making calls can expect the charge to fall from €0.49 to €0.46 per minute excluding VAT, and from €0.24 to €0.22 per minute excluding VAT for receiving a call while in another EU country.

Reding said: "EU Roaming Regulation was introduced so that Europeans use their mobile phones without fear of excessive bills when travelling in the Single Market."

She added that these further tariff reductions "will reaffirm the trend for lower roaming prices".

Reding fired another warning shot across EU mobile operators' bows by setting out her next target – "to bring about a Single Market for roaming text messages and data services."

Under current EU Roaming Regulations roaming charges will decrease for the last time on 30 August 2009 to €0.43 per minute for making calls and to €0.19 per minute for receiving calls while in another EU country. The present EU Roaming Regulations will expire in 2010, but are currently under review.

The move comes hot on the heels of UK comms regulator Ofcom's announcement of the launch of a consultation document on the UK mobile sector, which will report its findings next spring.