The European Union’s Roaming Regulations, which were put in place last May, have caused mobile roaming charges in Europe to fall again today. Charges fell last July and are scheduled to fall again next year.
Although maximum prices for voice calls and text messages are falling slightly, there’s also a dramatic drop in the maximum cost of mobile data usage. Price caps for data downloads have been cut by 36% from 2012 to a maximum €0.45 per MB (46p incl. VAT).
Neelie Kroes, European Commission Vice President, said “The EU has to be relevant to people’s lives. The latest price cuts put more money in your pocket for summer, and are a critical step towards getting rid of these premiums once and for all. This is good for both consumers and companies, because it takes fear out of the market, and it grows the market.”
Making calls is now a maximum of €0.24 cents per minute (25p incl. VAT), receiving a call is €0.07 per minute (7p incl. VAT) and sending an SMS text message is 8 cents (8p incl. VAT).
The charges apply within the European Union, which includes Croatia from today. They’re available on all standard mobile tariffs but don’t apply to customers who’ve chosen a special roaming deal from their network operator.
Neelie Kroes has recently said she’s working to eliminate roaming charges completely from 2014.
[EC roaming website]