EU slashes ‘roaming’ cellphone costs

Cellphone users in the European Union will enjoy significant savings when "roaming" within the bloc’s 27 member states from Wednesday with the introduction of new pricing rules. Under the new system, the maximum cost of making calls between two EU member states will be €0.43, down from €0.46, while receiving calls now costs €0.19, down from €0.22. Cellphone operators are also required to bill their customers by the second after the first 30 seconds of a call, rather than per minute — a measure the Commission says will cut phone bills by 20 percent.

Share

EU slashes cell phone roaming costs

European Union lawmakers voted Wednesday to slash the cost of texting and surfing the Internet on cell phones abroad. As of July 1, the cost of a text message sent from one EU country to another will drop from around €0.28 ($0.36) to €0.11 ($0.14). According to a statement on the European Union’s Web site, the age of consumers expecting “bill shocks” for downloading a picture or a movie from a cell phone while roaming in the EU is over

Share