Mobile phones users in the European Union will pay much less while on ‘roaming’ within the 27 member states, as the introduction of new pricing rules come into force.
Under the new limits, the maximum charge for making a roamed call in another EU country will be €0.43 per minute and €0.19 to receive a call. The cellular operators will charge customers by the second after the first 30 seconds, rather than by the minute.
The EU also reduced the cost of sending SMS text messages to €0.11 from €0.29 and imposed a cap of €1 per megabyte on downloading data using mobile phones. The European Commission estimates that the new measures could cut roaming charges for consumers by up to 60%.
Viviane Reding, telecoms commissioner of EU, said: “I call on the mobile industry to pass these savings on to data roaming customers swiftly. The commission and national regulators will monitor data roaming charges very carefully and assess next year whether the roaming market is finally becoming competitive.
In addition, the EU also introduced a cut-off mechanism to limit the consumers’ bill once it reaches €50, unless they choose another cut-off limit.
