European Union Caps Mobile Phone Roaming Charges

Lower mobile phone roaming charges took effect across the European Union on Thursday, a move by the EU to drive down costs for consumers ahead of the summer holidays, when many travel abroad. The measures implemented by the European Commission, the executive arm of the 27-country bloc, will reduce the cost of making and receiving mobile phone calls, as well as reducing charges for uploading and downloading data. The move has aggravated mobile phone operators, several of whom took the European Commission to court over the initiative and lost, but has won praise from consumers after several high-profile cases of people receiving huge phone bills. In 2009, a German traveller who downloaded a TV programme while roaming in France received a bill exceeding 46,000 euros ($56,290). "There will be no more bill shocks for tourists or business travellers surfing the Internet with smart phones or laptops while in another EU country," said Neelie Kroes, the European commissioner in charge of the EU's digital agenda. To make calls in other EU member states, consumers can expect to pay a maximum of 39 cents per minute, down from 43 cents per minute.

To receive calls, operators can charge a maximum of 15 cents per minute, down from 19 cents. Coinciding with the increased use of "smart phones", which allow users to surf websites and download games and movies, the measures lower the cost of data uploads and downloads to a maximum of 80 cents per megabyte, down from 1 euro per megabyte. The regulations set a 50 euro cut-off for data roaming charges, unless consumers request a higher or lower limit. Mobile phone operators must send consumers an alert when they reach 80 percent of their data roaming limit and cut off mobile Internet service once that limit has been reached. Additionally, mobile phone operators must send customers a text message, e-mail or on-screen alert every time they enter another EU country, according to the policy.

The cost of sending text messages across the EU while roaming remains 11 cents per message. Mobile phone companies including Britain's Vodafone and Spain's Telefonica had challenged the EU's roaming regulation in the European Court of Justice. But the EU's highest court ruled on June 8 that the roaming regulations, first enacted in 2007, were legally valid. According to the European Commission, costs for international mobile phone calls made in the EU have dropped by 73 percent since 2005.