1st July 2009 - Mobile roaming charges fall again

Local Labour MEP Linda McAvan has welcomed the end of rip-off charges for using your mobile in another EU country from TODAY, Wednesday 1st July, thanks to a new EU law coming in to force.

Linda said;

"Labour Euro MPs have campaigned hard to end unfair charges for consumers using their mobile abroad. We warned the mobile operators to cut their prices and they didn't respond so we had no choice but to bring in this new law to end the rip off. Prices for sending a text from another EU country will be cut by more than half from today, and calls will get cheaper too, all in time for the summer holiday season."

From today sending a text from another EU country will cost a maximum of 11p, while calling costs, already cut by an EU law introduced in 2007, will fall further to a maximum charge of 43p to make a call and 19p to receive.

Travellers will also get more information on what they will be charged and those who want to access the internet or send email while abroad can set a limit on how much they are willing to spend

Linda added;

"Ensuring people don't come home to an outrageous phone bill after their holiday means there will be one less thing to worry about this summer."

More information:

From July 1 2009 the revised EU law on mobile phone 'roaming' charges comes into force, cutting the costs of using your mobile in another EU country.

The revised law includes a cap on charges for texts when roaming in another EU state at 11 cents (11p with VAT), adopts new transparency requirements and extends the legislation cutting voice roaming charges, which had been set to end in 2010. The regulation on voice calls will remain in place until 2012 and includes further reductions to calling charge caps, with 35 cents for outgoing calls and 11 cents for incoming calls from 2011.

Data usage transparency: under the system proposed by Euro MPs customers will be able to specify data usage limits in advance. A notification will then be sent when 80% of the limit is reached. When the limit is reached the consumer will be prompted to follow a certain procedure in case he/she wishes to continue the download. If the customer doesn't react as prompted the download will be ceased and charging stopped.