Find Your Best Mobile Roaming Rates

European mobile operators have launched a Web site that enables European consumers to find the best tariffs for making and receiving mobile phone calls when traveling abroad this summer. The site, which features up-to-date prices supplied directly by 75 operators from across the European Union, is the most comprehensive and accurate source of roaming information for travelers.

Available in six languages, the site http://www.roaming.gsmeurope.org/ shows prices by individual operator for a two-minute peak-time call to a fixed-line in the traveler's home country, prices for receiving a two minute peak-time call from home and the cost of sending and receiving text messages when traveling within Europe. The new site was developed by GSM Europe (GSME), the European arm of the GSM Association, with input from the European Regulators Group (ERG), to ensure European consumers have an easy way of finding the best mobile roaming rate when traveling in Europe.

"With competition ensuring that a wide choice of roaming packages and price plans are available in Europe, it is vital that the mobile industry makes it easy for its customers to find the best rate for their needs," said Kaisu Karvala, Chair of GSME. "Customers will have access to constantly-updated information, covering many different roaming price plans, direct from the industry."

"The ERG welcomes this initiative from GSM Europe," added Kip Meek, Chair of the ERG, which represents national telecoms regulators from across the European Union. "Making prices more transparent is an important step towards making the international roaming market work and providing a better deal for consumers".

The new site is more comprehensive than many existing sites as it includes prices available under packages specially tailored to roamers, highlighting the wide range of innovative tariff packages mobile operators are using to distinguish themselves from their competitors.