EU to end roaming rip-offs for SMSs

In the wake of last year's imposition of new rules by the EU forcing mobile phone operators to charge substantially lower tariffs to clients using their mobiles abroad, the European Commission yesterday laid out plans to do the same with regard to text messages (SMSs).

EU telecoms chief Viviane Reding said that text messages sent every year by roaming customers in the EU cost over 10 times more than domestic SMSs. There is no justification for this and so the EU will impose new rules to cut the prices by about 70 per cent.

According to the EU, a price cap between €0.11 and €0.15 per SMS would be appropriate.

Data published by the EU yesterday showed that, at present, the average cost of a roaming text message in the EU between October last year and March was €0.29. The data also shows that Maltese customers are paying even more. Go Mobile customers pay an average of €0.30 cents when texting from abroad while Vodafone clients pay an average €0.35 per SMS.

According to the EU, this is another rip-off by mobile phone companies and Brussels has now decided to intervene.

"EU citizens should be free to text across borders without being ripped off," Ms Reding insisted.

"Roaming charges have already drained the wallets of mobile customers too much, especially the 77 per cent of young people who send texts while using their mobile abroad. It is not a good sign for the competitiveness of Europe's mobile industry that it still hasn't got the message that credible price reductions are needed to avoid regulation. I will therefore recommend to my fellow commissioners that we propose a regulation of SMS roaming in October. We will also have to discuss in which way to address data roaming, which continues to be heavily overpriced," she said.

The Commission's study shows that prices for data services while roaming still range from €0.25 per MB to over €16 per MB. This, the Commission warned, will also have to change.