EU to detail even lower mobile roaming price caps
updated 10:35 am EDT, Fri July 1, 2011
Surcharge on calls to be 'nearly zero' by 2016
The European Commission has released a statement that would virtually eliminate roaming charges for voice calls in the European Union by 2015. The plan will be presented next week. Under rules set to expire next year, roaming charges are capped at €0.35 ($0.51) for calls made abroad and €0.11 ($0.16) for calls received. Text messages also have the 11 cent surcharge added.
In May of this year sources indicated that legislation was being discussed internally that would cap roaming charges at €0.24 ($0.35) per minute by 2014. As of July 2016, roaming charges would be virtually eliminated for voice calls, and the surcharge for text messages would be lowered to €0.10 according to those same sources.
A court challenge is likely. Mobile service providers sued in the European Court of Justice to block the caps when they were instituted in 2009, but lost.
