EU Report: Roaming Rates Have Fallen, But Not Far Enough
June 29, 2010
| 3:44 PM
A new report released Tuesday from the European Commission said that while price caps imposed by the European Union have led to a drop in the cost of roaming calls and sending text messages in Europe, more competition is needed to help push prices even lower.
The report said since the price caps were imposed in July 2009, the cost of roaming voice calls fell from .46 euros (56 cents) to .43 euros (52 cents) per minute and will go down to .39 euros (47 cents) as of Thursday. The commission said the cost of a text message also has dropped by 60 percent since July 2009 to .11 euros (13 cents). The prices wireless operators can charge each other for data roaming also is set to drop from 1 euro ($1.22) to .80 euros per megabyte (97 cents) on Thursday.
"The cost of using mobile phones or devices when abroad in the EU has fallen continuously since the adoption of the first roaming rules," Neelie Kroes, the commission's vice president for the digital agenda, said in a statement. "But three years since the rules came in, most operators propose retail prices that hover around the maximum legal caps. More competition on the EU roaming market would provide better choice and even better rates to consumers."
The commission is set to review the roaming rules by the end of June 2011 to determine whether they have met the EU's goal of achieving a single digital market.
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