Reduced roaming costs in Europe, starting July 2009
By Ilinca Nita on 22 Apr 09Good news for those who often travel around Europe: the European Parliament decided to cut the costs of roaming calls, texts and data services, starting the 1st of July 2009.
As of July, all mobile carriers that offer services in EU countries will have to comply with the new costs, thus not being able to charge customers more than it’s allowed.
According to the European Parliament, the maximum fee per minute for a call made abroad will be of €0.43, while the maximum fee for a call received abroad will be of €0.19 (currently, the caps are of €0.46 and €0.22, respectively).
A text message (SMS) sent abroad will be charged at no more than €0.11 – a serious cut from the current €0.28 cap.
Furthermore, carriers will not be able to charge more than €1.00 for 1 megabyte of data used abroad.
It’s expected that European mobile users will be able to save up to 60% of their bill costs after the new fees are applied.
The EU Parliament has also announced that roaming cost caps will be further lowered in 2010 and 2011, as follows:
- calls made abroad – €0.39 in 2010 and €0.35 in 2011
- calls received abroad – €0.15 in 2010 and €0.11 in 2011
- 1 megabyte of data used abroad – €0.80 in 2010 and €0.50 in 2010
None of the above costs include VAT.
Via Press release
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