EU slashes roaming fees again – and still hopes to end them

Headed to Europe for holidays this summer? The EU just shaved a bit more off your mobile roaming bill.

The European Commission has been slashing at roaming costs for the past several years, cutting the charges for making a call on the continent by as much as 90% since 2007.

The latest round of price cuts will see the cost of downloading data fall by 55.5% from a cap of €0.45/MB to €0.20/MB (£0.36/MB to £0.16/MB).

The capped price for making and receiving calls and sending text messages will fall by about about a quarter, to 19 cents/min, five cents/min, and six cents, respectively. The lower roaming price caps come into force 1 July.

Such price cuts aren’t the end goal for the EU: it wants to see roaming charges completely abolished, a project EC vice president Neelie Kroes has been pushing through the European Parliament.

“Why should we have roaming charges at all in a single market?” Kroes said. “By the end of this year I hope we see the complete end of roaming charges agreed – the Parliament has done their part, now it is up to Member States to seal the deal.”