EU confirms SMS and data roaming price caps

The EU will cap charges for roaming texts at a maximum of £0.09 and force operators to bill cross-border voice calls by the second, telecoms commissioner Viviane Reding has said. Texts from other EU countries currently typically cost about £0.23. The battling Luxembourger has also confirmed plans to slap a £0.79 per megabyte …

[Chris Hamilton]

Thats cheaper.....

... than I pay for text and data here in the UK? 9p for SMS and 79p/MB for data.

I currently (when my bundles run out) pay 10p for SMS and £1/MB, so unless these price caps are are also applying to home networks, it will be cheaper for me to use my phone abroad than in the UK.

[Stephen Lindsey]

Good news

Roaming 23p?

Proximus Belgium: Internal 12 cents, roaming in UK 75

They need to be forced or they will be no change.

[Pete Forman]

Will this apply when not roaming?

Nearly all operators charge 10p or more for PAYG SMS within the UK. Is that to be capped too?

http://petef.22web.net/payg.html

[Anonymous Coward]

Go Viv...

So she should cap the cost of charges for Data and SMS when in the EU, so should we pay almost double what we pay in the UK for texts when in the EU?

One thing I find strange though is if SMS will be capped at 9p, this will mean its actually CHEAPER to send a SMS when in the EU than sending a SMS when your in the UK - therefore in order to make this fairer wouldnt they also need to cut costs of SMS charges in the UK too?

What I also find strange is why she isnt focusing on Fixed Telephone operators and bringing in legislation to STOP these companies charging excessive connection charges of 7p for calls, as well as being able to bill us for calls per minute and not per second?????

Its not just mobiles where we as consumers are ripped off...

Emailed her heaps on this one but she doesnt bother replying to them!

[zedee]

Cheaper than internal charges

9p per SMS is a bit cheaper and 79p per MB is far cheaper than what I pay inside the UK, let alone roaming in the EU.

These restrictions will only apply across borders, I'm sure. Time to get an O2 germany SIM for use here........

[Soruk]

Cheaper abroad than at home?

It's almost worth getting a foreign SIM to use at home. 9p/text roaming, 10p/text on home network. £0.79/Mbyte roaming, £1.50/Mbyte at home. 35p/min peak-rate cross-network calls at home, 27p/min when roaming. I bet these "within Europe" rates exclude home network...

(Okay, I'm on the old Everyday 50 tariff. Which I only ever use offpeak for outgoing calls so is the perfect tariff for me.)

Paris because she'd be just as confused about this.

[MJ]

Be cheaper for me to roam!

I currently pay 12p per text, £5 per MB and up to 40p per minute for calls (if it's a non-same network call to a UK mobile) when on my home network in the UK. If these rates are enforced it'll actually be cheaper to use my phone when I'm roaming that when I'm back in Blighty! Winner!

[Nathanael Bastone]

Also here

10p / message 30p / minute other networks, 15p / min home and landline.Roaming for me too! crazy!

Because even Paris would see the illogicality at work here.

[Peter]

Keeping tabs on current tariffs

An unadulterated plug follows ...

I've started to collect and publish information on all current tariffs at MobileMeg.Org.

Cost is often cited as one of the single biggest reasons preventing faster adoption of Mobile Data Services by consumers and hopefully this will making these costs clear and accessible to consumers helping them understand whats available and make informed choice.

Check it out and join in at http://www.mobilemeg.org.

[Andy Barber]

What about the 070x rip off

I'm glad that the EU has enforced a ruling that will actually help it's citizens, WRT roaming charges.

When is Ms Reding going to look into the rip-off that is 070x numbers. I feel a letter coming on to my MEP's. I must say that writetothem.co.uk gets answers.

[Anonymous Coward]

Price Reductions...fat chance!

Your probably hopeless optimists if you expect the UK prices for SMS and data to drop, didn't several of of the networks INCREASE their Pay As You Go prices following the previous round of EU capping to compensate for lost revenu?

I for one would not be surprised to see them increase charges again for Pay As You Go users, contract customers will probably be safe as price increases usually mean you can end your contract early which the networks really don't like.

[Anonymous Coward]

79p/MB == £790/GB for data!!

Surely if the banks can be forced to cut their penalty fees to bear some relation to the cost involved, then roaming data should be similarly treated. Disruptive analysis rather cheekily posted a suggested cost of about 2p/MB (which at £20/GB must still be North of the true cost, or the operators would be losing money. Charching 40 times that for the privilege of roaming is completely out of kilter with voice roaming caps being ~3 times and the proposed textcap of ~1-2 times (or a price reduction even!).

This legislation will come too late (July 2009 is a full 12 months after her 'drop-dead date' for the operators to reduce charges) and be as welcome as a fart in a spacesuit and as useful as a chocolate teapot for Mobile Broadband Users.

[Nick]

WHAT A PRICE

WOW that means that I will be able to bring a forreign sim here to Spain and send SMS's cheaper than using my current Spanish contract SIM.

Well done Vivian...

[druck]

VAT

The figured quoted will be without VAT and local taxes, which will probably bump them up to more than pay in the UK.

I welcome it anyway, as I've just been hit by £65 of GPRS charges from logging on twice in Germany, at an extortionate £5/MB.

[Roger Gelder]

EU confirms .. & data roaming price caps

I am still not impressed: "a £0.79 per megabyte limit" still feels like £79 ($ 140) for an evening's roaming of 100MB. Fortunately I have no interest in musak nor videos.

roj