Lower Roaming Fees in Europe Starting July 1

The European Parliament has taken the decision to reduce roaming text, call and data service costs starting with July 2009. Following the decision, it is expected that consumers in Europe will see their bills for using a mobile phone while traveling abroad within the EU going down by as much as 60 percent when compared to current fees.

According to the decision, starting with July 1, 2009, a text message sent by a mobile phone user while traveling abroad in the EU will cost only €0.11, lower than the €0.28 fee that applies today. In addition to reducing SMS costs, the European Parliament also voted for new EU rules on data roaming, as suggested by the European Commission in September 2008, while the costs for mobile phone calls while roaming in another EU country have been slashed as well.

The Parliament's decision implies that the present cap for a mobile phone call made while abroad should be lowered progressively from today's €0.46 to €0.35 per minute by July 2011, while the cost for receiving a call should drop from €0.22 today to €0.11. In addition, wireless carriers in the EU will have to bill roaming calls by the second after the first 30 seconds for roamed calls, which is expected to lower consumer costs by around 24 percent.

Another result of the new rules is that data roaming charges while abroad (including surfing the web or downloading movies with a mobile phone) will also be reduce, given the fact that operators will only be allowed to charge as much as €1 per megabyte downloaded, compared to the current €1.68 per megabyte, which goes up to as much as €6.82 in Ireland, €5.30 in Greece, or €5.10 in Estonia. In 2010 the wholesale cap will fall further to €0.80, while in 2011 it will go down to €0.50.

“I welcome the strong support the European Parliament has today given the Commission's proposal for creating a single telecoms markets for all Europeans, whether they are crossing a border as tourists or as business travelers,” said José Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission. “After this vote, Europe is now clearly the most attractive continent in the world for mobile phone users. I expect this to translate very swiftly into even stronger growth for mobile data services in the EU.”