EU Acts To End Roaming Rip Off

A text message sent from abroad in the EU will cost no more than 0.11 (0.10) as of 1 July, instead of 0.28 today, after the European Parliament, in its plenary session in Strasbourg, yesterday voted by a large majority in favour of new EU rules on SMS and data roaming, proposed by the European Commission in September 2008.
The Parliament also voted for further cuts in the price of mobile phone calls while roaming in another EU country. The present cap for a mobile phone call made abroad will progressively drop from 0.46 to 0.35 per minute by July 2011, and from 0.22 today to 0.11 for mobile calls received while roaming abroad.
Mobile operators will also be required to bill roaming calls by the second from the 31st second at the latest, which will end the current practice under which consumers are overcharged by up to 24%. As the Council of EU Telecoms Ministers has already signalled its agreement with the new roaming rules, yesterdays vote paves the way for an entry into force of the new rules in time for the summer holidays. The European Commission says that European consumers are expected to save up to 60% on their bill for using a mobile phone abroad in the EU.
Today's vote marks the definite end of the roaming rip off in Europe, says EU Telecoms Commissioner, Viviane Reding. Thanks to the strong support of the European Parliament and the Council, the new roaming rules were agreed in the record time of just seven months. Just in time for the summer holidays, European citizens will now be able to see the single market without borders on their phone bills.”
The new EU roaming rules endorsed by the Parliament yesssterday will:

  • Cap the price that consumers can be charged for sending a text message while abroad at 0.11 (excluding VAT), compared to a current average of 0.28 (with prices per roamed SMS above 0.35 in the Netherlands and in Portugal).
  • Substantially reduce data roaming charges by introducing a wholesale cap of 1 per megabyte downloaded, compared to an average wholesale price of 1.68 per megabyte, with peaks in Ireland (6.82), Greece (5.30) and in Estonia (5.10). The wholesale cap will fall to 0.80 in 2010 and to 0.50 in 2011.
  • Protect consumers from bill shock by allowing them to choose a cut-off mechanism once the bill reaches 50, unless the consumer opts for a higher limit. Operators will have until March 2010 to put these transparency measures in place. Recently, a German consumer who downloaded a TV programme while roaming in France was faced with a bill of 46,000.
  • Further reduce price caps for mobile roaming calls. Now at 0.46 for calls made and 0.22 for calls received abroad, the caps will go down to 0.43 for calls made and 0.19 for calls received abroad on 1 July 2009, to 0.39 and 0.15 on 1 July 2010, and to 0.35 and 0.11 by 1 July 2011 (all prices per minute, excluding VAT).
  • Introduce the principle of per-second billing after the first 30 seconds for roamed calls made and from the first second for calls received while abroad. At present, consumers are paying around 20% more than the time they actually consume when making or receiving calls.

Following today's Parliament vote, the new EU Roaming Regulation will become directly applicable law throughout all 27 EU Member States on 1 July 2009.
The new roaming rules, which add to a first EU regulation on voice roaming adopted in 2007 will apply until summer 2012. The European Parliament has asked the Commission to report on the functioning of the new rules again by summer 2010. The Commission could then propose further rules, if required, by the end of June 2011.
The development of the roaming market will be kept under close EU scrutiny over the next three years,” says Commissioner Reding. I very much hope that the mobile industry will understand this message. The ball is now in their court if they want to show that there can be healthy competition in the roaming market. The best proof of this would be if attractive voice and data roaming packages appear on the market very soon.
Commenting on the EUs decision, James Parker, Manager of Mobiles at moneysupermarket.com says:
The EU have slowly been reducing roaming charges for mobiles since 2007, and todays decision introduces caps on data roaming and text messages for the first time. This cap has brought prices down significantly for making calls and sending texts while travelling in Europe, data charges have come down almost 60%, and will fall further still within the next two years. The Commission has also bought in a rule on billing which will force operators to bill by the second to stamp out any overcharging.
Whilst this is great news for mobile users travelling in Europe, it is a shame the Commission has to force the hand of the operators. The Commission has been in the discussion with the large network providers for years – any moves to cap costs or stamp out overcharging should be mutually agreed, not be forced through using legislation.
Theres an overview of current roaming tariffs on the EU Roaming website.