EU cuts prices for mobile internet surfing abroad by 35%

On 1 July, just in time for the holiday period, mobile communication service providers were obliged to reduce roaming rates for voice calls, text messages and data exchange within the EU.

EU roaming regulation necessary for internal market

"On Monday we again reduced the costs of using mobile phones abroad within the EU. The sometimes horrendous price differences between national and cross-border communications within the EU are in open contradiction to the very idea of the internal market," said Angelika Niebler and Paul Rübig, the two EPP Group MEPs who negotiated the EU laws which led to the gradual decrease of roaming rates for voice calls, text messages and data communications within the EU.

Rübig, in charge of the first two EU roaming regulations in 2007 and 2009, stressed that "regulating prices is not the task of a politician". The reason for this regulation was "to stop abuse and implement the internal market," he explained.

Cheaper mobile communication abroad

The new EU roaming regulation entered into force on 1 July 2012 and implements further price cuts on 1 July 2013 and 2014. "We stopped the rip-off by some service providers of their customers. Now, maximum prices for mobile internet surfing abroad will be cut by 35%," explained Niebler, spokesperson in the European Parliament on the latest EU roaming regulation.

As of 1 July 2013, the maximum prices for outgoing voice calls from another EU country were reduced from 29 to 24 cents (without VAT). The ceiling for data transfers were brought down from 70 to 45 cents per Megabyte, for text messages, from 9 to 8 cents. Costs for incoming calls were also reduced from 8 to 7 cents.

In the summer of 2014, European citizens will benefit again from price caps: prices for outgoing cross-border voice calls will then be lowered to 19 cents, for text messages to 6 cents and for incoming calls to 5 cents. Mobile data transfers will be reduced by more than half to 20 cents per Megabyte.