Lower Mobile International Roaming Charges in Europe
The European Commission is looking to drastically lower mobile roaming charges throughout Europe, and they are considering imposing the first retail price controls on the use of mobile internet while traveling in order to accomplish this. A draft plan would place the cap on voice roaming charges at 24 euro cents, or $0.34 per minute, beginning in July 2014.
The cap on roaming charges for receiving a voice call would also fall to 10 cents by 2014, while the cap on roaming for sending a text message would fall to 8 cents. The most controversial feature of the new proposal is the imposition of the first consumer price limits on roaming charges for using the internet. There are currently no retail limits on data roaming in Europe, where the average charge is 2.50 euros per downloaded megabyte.