Today – July 1st sees another reduction in the maximum amounts that mobile phone companies can charge in the EU when customers use their phones outside their home country. The biggest reduction is on the maximum fee for data roaming which has dropped from 70c per Mb to 45c per Mb. (before VAT)
The revised EU Roaming charges are shown below (Effective Jul 1st 2013)
Under the new rules consumers will pay no more than (excl. VAT):
24 cents per minute to make a call, (was 29c)
7 cents per minute to receive a call, (currently 8c)
8 cents to send a text message (currently 9c)
45 cents per Megabyte (MB) to download data or browse the Internet. (previously 70c)
These price caps are due to go down again in July 2014 – and roaming charges might even be banned in the EU in 2014. The original plan for 2014 was to cap roaming charges at 19 cents per minute to make a call, 5 cents per minute to receive a call, 6 cents to send a text message and 20 cents per MB to download data or browse the Internet whilst travelling in the EU. In June the EU voted to make telecoms companies charge their customers the same rate whatever EU country they visit. If it happens – this change will take place in 2014.