Roaming charges for those Members travelling about a bit may see the burden on their hip pocket lesson. Today the European Union announced plans to cap the costs for sending data, making calls, firing off an SMS while roaming.
Members of the European parliament (MEPs) have reached a compromise on the proposed regulations for EU members that are roaming internationally. SMS rates will be capped at 0.11 EUR per message starting on July 1, 2009. Data rates are a little interesting with carriers able to charge each other, although this too will be capped (not the rates that actual consumers may be charged).
By July 2010, consumers will be provided with an automatic data roaming cap of 50 EUR (US$67.58). This implemented to prevent any possible shock from a bill. Users must be warned when they hit 80% of that cap. With this warning, users are offered to keep going (extend the cap of sorts). If they do not respond to the warning once at the 50 EUR point they will have their data transmissions automatically disabled.
Wholesale Data Rates:
- Start at 1.00 EUR (US$1.35) per megabyte on July 1, 2009
- Fall to 0.80 EUR (US$1.08) and 0.50 EUR (US$0.68) per megabyte in 2010 and 2011, respectively
Roaming Calls:
- 0.43 EUR (US$0.73) per minute for outbound calls
- 0.19 EUR (US$0.26) per minute for inbound calls starting on July 1 of 2009
- Rates fall to 0.39 EUR (US$0.53) and 0.15 EUR (US$0.20) per minute on July 1, 2010
- Then to 0.35 EUR (US$0.47) and 0.11 EUR (US$0.15) per minute on July 1, 2011
[via MobileBurn]
