Lower prices for SMS and data in Europe are getting closer. The European Parliament's Industry Committee has voted in favour of the European Commission's proposals to reduce roaming charges for sending text messages and downloading data in the EU from July 2009. The current plans would restrict the costs of texts while roaming to 11 Euro cents (plus VAT) each. It's also talking about lower data charges than previously discussed; restricting inter-operator charges to €0.50 per megabyte of roamed data - not €1 per MB as originally proposed. The next step is for members of the European Parliament to vote in late April. [Press release]