Mobile Phones - EU Cracking down Roaming Costs by Liam G

During the summer of last year the European Commission passed legislation that essentially put a "cap" on the amount mobile service providers could charge when their customers are "roaming" the EU.

Since then there has been an average price drop of 60% in charges made to customers who make and receive international calls.

With the new legislation in place, the highest providers' are allowed to charge is 34p/minute for making calls from a mobile within the EU, and 16.6p/minute for receiving calls.

Prior to the legislation some customers where paying as much as £8.30 for a mere four minute call!

The increase in competition now see's the average price at 21.9p/minute for calls made abroad and 8.7p/minute for receiving calls.

Another concern the European body has regarding roaming charges is the fact that calls are charged by the minute and not by the second. It has revealed that this could account for a 20% increase in call charges for the customer.

The EU body has said it is going to monitor this matter closely throughout year and by the end of the 2008 if the companies have not made any changes themselves it may pass further legislation.

Along with this they also intend to look into reducing the often vastly inflated charges that are applied to SMS texts and mobile internet use while abroad.

As there was a marked 10% decrease in call charges last year after the EU proposed it was going to pass legislation, it is hoped that this year will see similar results in terms of SMS and mobile internet charges.