EU Approves Mobile Roaming Charge Cut

Euro MPs have approved a bill forcing networks to cut their roaming charges for voice and text calls in Europe.

European MPs have overwhelmingly voted to lower the roaming charges for calls and text messages in Europe. By 646-22 they passed the bill that had already been approved by EU telecoms ministers.

This means that the roaming cost of a text will drop in July from 29 euro cents to 11 cents (about 14 cents US), while roaming calls will go from 46 euro cents per minute for an outgoing voice call to 43 cents. Voice calls received while abroad will drop from the current 22 cents to 19 cents in July and 11 cents by July 2011.

"This is a good example of how the EU can bring real benefits to British people," said Caroline Flint, UK minister for Europe.

As part of the legislation, customers must also be notified when their roaming bill reaches 50 Euros, meaning no danger of coming home to phone bill shock.