The European Parliament has voted to scrap mobile phone roaming fees when you’re using your phone abroad.
… And besides, GhettoIFE looks great on your phone… 😉
Over the past few years roaming fees have dropped considerably within the EU border areas resulting in lower costs for consumers to use their mobile phones abroad. This is now extends from voice calls and text messages to data traffic.
With the vote that has passed in the European Parliament, roaming costs will drop to nothing within the European Economic Area, creating a single market for mobile phone operators to exist in.
The upside is for the consumer is that you’ll be able to use your phone in EU countries for the same price you’ll use it at home – which is going to be one heck of a cost saving.
Neelie Kroes, the European commissioner for digital affairs states:
“This is what the EU is all about – getting rid of barriers to make life easier and less expensive. We should know what we are buying, we should not be ripped off, and we should have the opportunity to change our mind.”
The next step is for individual European countries to review and agree on the regulation, which is expected to be finalised by the end of this year.
The European Union has been working hard to reduce bill shock -a term for running large roaming fees since 2007 with the imposition of EuroTarrifs and forced cuts to roaming charges.
Prices have dropped considerably since 2007:
- Voice calls have dropped from a capped €0.49/minute to €0.24/minute
- Incoming calls dropped from a capped €0.24/minute to €0.08/minute
- Text messages dropping €0.11 to €0.06 per outbound message
- Data controlled from unregulated pricing, down to €0.70/mb in 2012, to €0.45/mb today
Some operators offer bundles and discounts on these prices (For example Vodafone UK charges £3 a day to take your tariff with you to the EU).
This change applies to 28 members of the European Union (Austria,Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus Nicosia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romanian, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom) and the 3 members of the European Economic Area (Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway).
Whilst the end up roaming fees in Europe is a good thing – there is the minor problem of roaming outside the European Union.
And this is where it gets really expensive with certain operators.
If your travels take you abroad, it is worth investigating how much it’ll cost per minute, per text message and – more importantly if using your data on your phone – per megabyte because the costs will rack up fast if you’re not careful…
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Would this extend to Switzerland too?
Seemingly not, nor the holiday hotspot of Turkey….