Roaming made cheaper

If you are travelling it may interest you to know that roaming charges for using your mobile phone abroad have gone down again with effect from last month. This is the result of an EU law that we adopted in the European Parliament earlier this year.

And for the first time, EU law has also pushed down charges for sending SMSs as well as using internet or sending e-mails when you are travelling in other EU countries. But note that the reduced charges do not apply when you are travelling outside the EU.

The table below shows the applicable charges on a per minute basis for making and receiving phone calls as well as for sending SMSs. Receiving SMSs was and remains free. Charges do not include VAT.

Charges will go down further next summer and yet again in 2011 when making a call from other EU countries will cost you a maximum of 39 cents per minute and just 15 cents per minute for receiving a call. Moreover, for the first time, billing will also take place on a per second basis (after the first 30 seconds) for calls that you make and immediately for calls received. This means that calls that are shorter than a minute can actually work out cheaper than the tariffs indicated in the table.

Whereas reduced tariffs for roaming calls were first introduced in July 2007, this is the first time that EU law has been extended to cover SMSs and data transfer. This is an important development considering the extent to which SMSs are used and also the increased use of internet.

Charges for sending SMSs when roaming have been capped at a maximum 11 cents per message excluding VAT (or 13 cents, including VAT). The cap applies through to summer 2011. This means that the price of sending a message when travelling abroad has come down considerably, depending on your operator. Previously, SMS rates applied by some operators were even treble this price, truly prohibitive.

EU law also covers data transfer for the first time. This applies to charges for using the internet on your phone or on your computer, for using e-mail and for otherwise sending data messages when roaming. The law caps the wholesale price to €1 per megabyte downloaded. This will go down to 80 cents next year and 50 cents per megabyte from 2011.

To get an idea, one megabyte is roughly equivalent to 300 e-mails (without attachments), one minute of MP3 compressed music or less than an hour of browsing time.

This new tariff represents a considerable reduction on previous applicable tariffs which, in some cases, were truly astronomical. Nevertheless, it is important to bear in mind that the tariff cap applies to wholesale prices and not retail prices. This means that the actual price that you pay will be higher than €1 per MB - so make sure you check your charges before you start surfing or downloading. You should get a free message informing you of the applicable tariffs when you arrive abroad.

Moreover, from next March operators will also be required to introduce a cut-off limit of €50 for how much you can spend when using data services during roaming. This means that your service will be interrupted once you reach this limit.

This is intended to alert you and avoid situations where you receive shock bills upon your return home after having surfed the internet or downloaded material on your laptop or mobile when travelling abroad. A different cut-off limit may be agreed with you but if not, then the €50 limit will apply.

The European Commission will be monitoring price developments and will be reporting in two years' time. At that point a decision will be taken whether we should come back to this issue with new legislation.

Dr Busuttil is a Nationalist member of the European Parliament.

www.simonbusuttil.eu