The maximum charge for mobile phone calls in Europe has fallen again, thanks to the European Commission's 2009 ruling on mobile phone charges.

Consumers on any standard UK tariff will now receive the so-called 'Eurotariff' of no more than 35 Euro cents per minute for calls made (38p incl. VAT) and 11 cents (12p incl. VAT) per minute for calls received while abroad in the EU.

A new report from Juniper Research predicts the number of mobile Instant Messaging users will exceed 1.3 billion by 2016, which is three times as many as last year's total. The increase is expected to be driven by new services along with the continued growth of existing services.

However, SMS will remain as the primary means of text communication on mobile handsets, according to the report.

Nielsen has been looking through recent research to compare the ways US teenagers use their mobile phones.

It says today's children watch more mobile video than any other group, with 12 to 17-year-olds enjoying over 7 hours of mobile video a month - compared to 4 hours 20 minutes for the general population.

Mark Bridge writes:

Apple iMessage is going to kill SMS. And then, when it's killed it, it'll dance on its grave. Anticlockwise. Whilst mocking every mobile network in the world.

As we've previously reported and also mentioned in today's podcast, a number of new European telecoms regulations come into force today. Ofcom has issues a statement that explains how these will affect the UK.

The changes include shorter contract terms, compensation for delays to number porting and improved access to emergency services for disabled consumers.