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EU roaming charges set from today

The EU has said the "roaming rip-off" is coming to an end as new laws come into force.

By Jennifer Scott, 1 Jul 2009 at 11:14

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European Union (EU) legislation to lower roaming charges for mobile phones comes into force today.

The ruling means operators will have to cap prices for calls, texts and web surfing across Europe for the first time.

The maximum charge for a text message has been set at 11 euro cents (9.4p), 43 cents a minute for a call and €1 for transferring 1MB of data.

Viviane Reding, Commissioner for the Information Society and Media in the EU, said in a statement: “From today, all Europeans making calls or sending texts with their mobiles can experience the EU's single market without borders.”

“The roaming rip-off is now coming to an end thanks to the determined action of the European Commission, the European Parliament and all 27 EU member states.”

Vodafone and 3 both announced yesterday that they would be cutting their roaming costs just before the introduction of the legislation, but now all operators across Europe will be forced to follow the rules.

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2 comments

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Commission launches Facebook page on roaming

There is an interesting debate on roaming on the Facebook page "Sea, Sun and SMS" which is moderated by people from the European Commission. tinyurl.com/seasunsms

By budabe on Friday Jul 3

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.

By peter144 on Monday Jul 6

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