EU Confirms Major Roaming Price Cuts

The European Commission has formally adopted new mobile roaming regulations that will make it cheaper to use mobile devices within the European Union from 1 July.

The regulations were provisionally agreed by the European Parliament and EC in March and will allow smartphone and tablets users to travel abroad without the fear of running up extortionate bills.

No more bill shock

They will be published in the EU Official Journal of 30 June 2012 and will be valid for 10 years until June 2022. From this year, making a call will cost no more than €0.29 (24p) per minute while receiving a call will cost no more than €0.08 (6p). Rates will be further reduced in July 2013, and in 2014 the maximum  cost of a call will fall to €0.19 (16p) and €0.05 (4p) to receive.

SMS texts will cost €0.09 (7p), falling to €0.06c (5p) in 2014, while one megabyte of data will set you back €0.70 (59p) from July and just €0.20 (17p) in two years’ time.

From July 2014, customers will be allowed to sign up for an alternative roaming offer, separate from their contract for national mobile services, while margins between wholesale and retail prices have been maintained in order to let new competitors enter the market.

The European Union has long been calling for action, but the new measures will not cover travel outside of its borders, leaving some travellers still vulnerable to high roaming costs.

“This means that the new EU roaming rules will now come in force on 1 July, just in time for the summer holidays,” commented Bengt Beier, coordinator of the FairRoaming.org campaign. “We are glad governments accepted the new regulation just as the Parliament did on 10 May. The new rules are a step forward for consumer protection. But it will take another two years until we will know for sure whether prices will really drop.”

“The EU should now look towards two other nuisances for mobile users: the high prices for worldwide roaming and international calls from home to other European states. Because those things are not covered by the roaming regulation,” he added.

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