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ROAMING CHARGES FOR using mobiles abroad are expected to fall further this summer after MEPs agreed a preliminary deal on price caps.
Under the proposals, mobile operators could charge no more than 29c per minute to make a call, 9c to send a text and 70c for a megabyte of data.
The price caps agreed by the European Parliament’s Industry Committee are expected to be approved by all MEPs, and will then come into force on July 1 2012.
They will be further reduced over the next two years – with maximum charges dropping to 19c/min for a call, 6c for a text message and 20c per MB of data by July 1 2014.
After that date, mobile users will also be able to shop around and sign up to a separate mobile contract for roaming. The measure is designed to prevent networks offsetting cheap domestic rates with high roaming charges.
Neelie Kroes, European Commission Vice President for the Digital Agenda, said:
Consumers are fed up with being ripped off by high roaming charges. The new roaming deal gives us a long-term structural solution, with lower prices, more choice and a new smart approach for data and Internet browsing.
Fianna Fáil MEP Liam Aylward also welcomed the move, saying:
There is a clear commitment among EU policy makers that the roaming rip-off must come to an end. The cuts and capping of costs are the latest moves towards reducing the expense of using phones abroad for consumers.
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Still away too much. There should be no extra charges for roaming for what you are paying already in your priceplan if you are abroad and still within a fellow european union country. Come on politicians get of your arse and make it happen.
Pity this didn’t come into effect a few years ago when I received an O2 bill of €1200 for 3 days in italy with the blessed iPhone!
Not even 1 phonecall from them to suggest there might be irregular usage on my phone!
Ha Ha
I hoped you refused to pay.
I feel ya, I used to work for a phone company and once seen a mobile broadband bill for €14,000.
back when mobile broadband was new some dude took his modem ti central Africa and uploaded a bunch if pics…. lol….
lucky the fee was waved….
I got charged 1100 for 3 days in spain last year, i still haven’t payed. When I compained to ComReg after getting solicitors letters in the door they reduced the fee by 50%. I am going to fight them on this till they reduce it by another 40%. I’d rather go to prison than pay those ridicioulus rates
Well done.
Are some of these proposed charges not cheaper than the going PAYG rates in Ireland atm?
And always turn data roaming off!
Articles not really accurate
I believe the EU can only legislate for the cost of calls and data in other EU countries… So you’re still going to get hit in the likes of north Africa, Asia USA
It makes commercial sense to have a reasonable cost…
Why rip off 10% of people who pay such charges and use roaming extensively…When if you charged a clear, easy to understand, reasonable rate 90% would choose to pay them
Always check rates with your provider before travelling
Mobile Internet charges are so high that they are prohibitive if using a Irish provider abroad.
Good news but not enough roaming and data charges are extortionate here.
The one thing the EU is doing right.
At the time I knew nothing of Comreg and it was the original iPhone.. Talking maybe 5/6 years ago. So data roaming wasnt that known.
I rang O2 about the €1200 bill and they said I had no choice but to pay it and threatened me with court costs etc. Then they actually cut my phoneline off for 2 days cause it was overdue!
Ended up paying it on the Good aul’ plastic card. I was sick.
Couldn’t even speak about it for over a year… And plus the fact it was my son watching wresting videos on YouTube that ran it up!
Wrestling videos are class tho ;)
Well worth it if u ask me!!!
Ahh that’s it Dave, maybe I was just sick cause it wasn’t me who watched the wrestling vids! :-)
I can laugh about it now, but I certainly wasn’t laughing when it came through the door!
Think 3 like home only applies to billpay customers-allows billpay customers to use up there existing mins/texts/data out of their allowance but charges if you go over it. Don’t think the rules are the same for prepay so I’d advise you to check in your local store. Whatever you do, don’t phone their Indian call centre. Total disaster.
No roaming charges with 3 in the UK if your with 3 Ireland, but if your with 3 UK and your roaming in Ireland, you guessed it, roaming charges.
Grand, thanks for that. :-)
I discovered recently that for about €40 per month you get 500Mb data in any EU country. I travel a lot so that suits me. Vodafone have a new app that lets you see from the date you reset it how much of your data allowance you are using. At present I’m ripped off 80 cent for every call I receive abroad. With many dropped calls that mounts up. There’s no roaming charges in the UK for an Irish mobile.
My son is off to the uk on sat for 4 days with an iPhone currently on 3 network? Prepay)
Is there charges for roaming data over there?
We’d all nearly be better off to get Spanish/English/Polish SIM cards to use back home at this rate! These rates are better than domestic rates in most cases!!
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