New EU laws to limit roaming costs

 

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Posted on 29 Jun 2009 at 14:13

From 1 July 2009 calls will have a cap of 0.43 Euro (around 37p) per minute for calls made and 0.19 Euro (around 16p) per minute for calls received, excluding VAT. Over the next two years prices are set to fall even further.

From 1 July 2009 calls will have a cap of 0.43 Euro (around 37p) per minute for calls made and 0.19 Euro (around 16p) per minute for calls received, excluding VAT. Over the next two years prices are set to fall even further.

On 1 July 2010, the cap will be 0.39 Euro (around 33p) for calls made and 0.15 Euro (around 13p) for calls received; on 1 July 2011 the cap will be 0.35 Euro (around 30p) for calls made and 0.11 Euro (around 9p) for calls received.

This marks a reduction from the current call cap of 0.46 (around 39p) Euro for calls made and 0.22 Euro (around 19p) for calls received.

The EU has also introduced a per-second billing, applicable after the first 30 seconds of a call made and from the start of received phone calls. This could reduce bills by up to 24 per cent.

Web surfing should also be cheaper, with a cap of 1 Euro (around 86p) per megabyte downloaded. This figure will also be reduced over the next two years, to 0.80 Euro (around 68p) on 1 July 2010 and 0.5 Euro (around 43p) on 1 July 2011.

Considering that currently there's no cap and that mobile browsing in some countries can cost up to 6.82 Euro (around £5.79) per megabyte, mobile bills will be a lot smaller with the EU laws.

Finally, mobile operators have until March 2010 to introduce a cut-off limit of 50 Euro (around £42). Once the limit's hit, the user's phone will no longer be able to make calls.

The figures listed in the EU laws represent a maximum figure and mobile operators may have cheaper rates. For example, Vodafone has recently dropped its roaming charges completely.

Author: David Ludlow