Roaming charges to drop across Europe
It's been a long time coming but the cash cow has finally been slaughtered. Networks all over Europe are crying into their coffee as mobile phone roaming charges have been reduced by orders of the European commission. From today millions of mobile phone users across Europe will benefit from much cheaper phone calls.
According to The Guardian, the new system of roaming charges consists of a mandatory single tariff that covers all European Union countries. It should make it significantly cheaper for those of us that want to use our mobile phones on holiday in Europe. The new tariff prices are radically lower than they have been previously. Even something as simple as sending a text back home will now drop from an average of 28 Euro cents to just 11 cents. So coming back to a phone bill that is the equivalent to the GDP of a large country should now be a thing of the past.
The new tariffs also include some maximum costs. Making a call while abroad will now cost 37p per minute. Receiving calls from home will now cost 17p per minute. Sending a text message from any country inside the EU will now cost 10p. Interestingly the price of data transfers has also fallen, it's estimated that a megabyte of data will now cost 85p. You can find more specific information about costs on the European Commission's website.
We think it's great that the EU has taken this step to end the hideous rip off that we have all had to endure. Coming home from holiday is depressing enough without the worry of tripping over a huge phone bill when you get home. It would be nice if roaming charges were banned completely though but this is the best we’re going to get for now.
