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Data roaming charges will fall by 40% for O2 customers, as well as Telefónica subscribers in Ireland, Spain, Germany and the Czech Republic. The new tariffs will incorporate reductions in the per-megabyte price and the introduction of time-based charging. O2 says that its customers will save anything between 42% and 80% compared to November 2007 prices.

Ahead of that, the cost of sending a text message home from anywhere in the European Union will fall to a maximum of €0.32 plus VAT, while it will cost nothing to receive a message. The cut of almost half on existing prices will be phased in from February and apply to all subscribers by April.

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business travellers, a new roaming bundle already provides worldwide data access to data at a price equivalent to €1 per megabyte. For a flat monthly fee of €50, business travellers can access 50MB of data on any roaming partner network worldwide. The package is available now in the UK, Spain, the Czech Republic and Ireland and will be introduced in Germany in the second quarter of 2008.

"This initiative follows similar innovation by Telefónica in voice roaming, with the introduction last year of our highly successful My Europe roaming price plans - the first to completely remove charges for receiving calls abroad," says Matthew Key, chairman and CEO of Telefónica O2 Europe. "Today's announcement honours the promise we made to customers at that time that, having reduced the cost of calling whilst abroad, we would bring down the last barrier in roaming charges - data."

He added that the changes form part of the O2's aim of increasing the transparency and simplicity of mobile charges. "Importantly, it also addresses the issue of transparency where, for too long, customers have been confused by a plethora of tariffs and fees. The published rate will apply across the board - regardless of the mobile network used."