Thursday 28 June 2012

Holiday savings - new roaming rules into force on 1 July

Today, the European Commission published a press release on the new EU rules on roaming charges that will come into force on 1 July 2012.

Good news for travellers with a weakly developed sense of direction, news addicts and users of digital services in general: For the first time, there will be a cap on so-called 'data roaming', meaning the downloading of data from the internet through a mobile connection (see also an earlier post on this blog). This should bring down the prices for accessing maps, videos, social networks and digital media while roaming through the EU, or at least make sure that travelling digital consumers will not be surprised by high bills when returning home. Furthermore, prices for sending text messages and making voice calls will also be cut.

The new maximum charges as of 1st of July will be:
  • 29 cents per minute to make a call, plus VAT
  • 8 cents per minute to receive a call, plus VAT
  • 9 cents to send a text message, plus VAT
  • 70 cents per Megabyte (MB) to download data or browse the Internet whilst travelling abroad (charged per Kilobyte used), plus VAT.
See also the European Commission's roaming website.