The European Union has been trying to find ways to lower the mobile roaming costs for a few years now for its citizens who frequently throughout different countires in the EU. It had finally decided to pass a proposal to achieve this goal.
The current rates that EU citizens are charged are as follows: €0.50 per megabyte of data, €0.35 cents per minute for placing a voice call, and €0.11 for sending an SMS. By the year 2014 it plans to significantly reduce prices, these will include: €0.20 per megabyte of data, €0.15 per voice call and an SMS would cost €0.005.
In order for customers to avoid “sticker-shock” of shockingly high bills when they return from a trip abroad, the EU has proposed the imolementation of a €50 roaming cap. With the help of this cap,once you hit the cap, operators are required to alert customers and make them choose to use their roaming services. This proposal is all set to go in front of the European Parliament in April and replace the current roaming plans that are to expire this july.
There might be a widespread re-negotiation of roaming contracts with carriers all over the world, as the European Union carriers would pay less to operate partners to be able to pass savings along to customers. An initiative to lower the ever increasing roaming bills are always eagerly welcome!
