Press Release: End of ‘roaming rip-off’: cost of texting, calling, surfing the web abroad to plummet from today thanks to EU action

As of 1 July, 2009, sending a text message from abroad in the EU costs a maximum €0.11, almost three times cheaper than the previous EU average of €0.28 (excl. VAT). To make a roamed call in another EU country must not cost more than €0.43 per minute, and no more than €0.19 to receive a call. From today, outgoing roaming calls will be charged by the second, after the first 30 seconds, rather than by the minute, and incoming calls will be charged by the second from the first second. Holidaymakers and business travellers can also surf the web, download movies or send photos with their mobile without fear of ‘bill shocks’ while roaming thanks to a wholesale cap of €1 per megabyte (MB) downloaded. All these measures are expected to cut roaming charges for EU consumers by a further 60% and increase mobile phone use. The EU first acted on roaming in 2007 reducing the cost of voice roaming calls by 70%.

European Commission: DG Information Society: Activities: Roaming http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/activities/roaming/index_en.htm

European Commission: MEMO/09/309: EU cuts the cost of texting and mobile data services abroad – Frequently Asked Questions http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=MEMO/09/309&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en

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