EU sets deadline for data roaming cuts

 

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By Simon Aughton

Posted on 11 Feb 2008 at 15:40

Mobile phone operators have until 1 July to slash the costs of text messaging and internet access for roaming users, or the EU will intervene and regulate.

The Commission recently placed price limits on roaming charges for voice calls, cutting the cost of making calls abroad by 60%, though it's still more expensive than using a phone at home. However, the Commission envisages a different scenario for internet access.

"Sending text messages or downloading data via a mobile phone while in another EU country should not be substantially more expensive for a consumer than sending text messages or downloading data at home," the European Commissioner for Information Society and Media, Viviane Reding, told delegates at the Mobile World Congress.

"If I see no such single market offers for data roaming evolve by 1 July of this year, I will have no other choice than to propose regulatory intervention again," she warned. "The Commission is required to make proposals at the latest at the end of 2008 if data roaming prices should continue to depart substantially and without justification from domestic tariffs."