Taking your mobile phone on holiday becomes more affordable from today following the introduction of new EU-wide caps on roaming charges.

I always wondered how operators could get away with charging so much for data roaming

Mobile internet users are the biggest winners, with the cost of one megabyte of data being capped for the first time at 70c plus VAT – meaning savings of up to 70 per cent for Maltese consumers.

People using their mobile phones overseas will also save money when sending texts or making and receiving calls, although savings there are not as pronounced (see box), while an alert system warning users that they have spent almost €50 in data has now been extended beyond EU shores.

The reductions form part of the EU’s efforts to make mobile phone roaming more affordable and transparent. Caps on roaming prices were first introduced in 2007, with further reductions in 2009.

EU legislators have now turned their sights to mobile data roaming, following exponential increases in smart phone usage over the past years. A recent UK study found that consumers spend more time browsing the web on their mobile phones than making phone calls.

Roaming prices are set to come down even further in 2013 and 2014, with the European Commission having already established roaming price ceilings.

Browsing the internet on your phone will cost a maximum of 45c plus VAT for every megabyte of data from July 2013, with that price coming down even further to 20c plus VAT per megabyte by July 1, 2014. That date, two years from today, will also see the introduction of an innovative à la carte roaming service for European consumers.

Through this system, mobile users will be able to shop around for the best roaming deal when abroad, much in the way that individuals can currently choose which wifi network to connect to.

Avid traveller and smartphone user Claude Grech welcomed the price caps. “This is great news. I always wondered how operators could get away with charging so much for data roaming,” he said.

Like many users, Mr Grech said he tended to turn his phone’s data roaming function on and off while abroad as needed.

“I’ll probably still turn it off, but I’ll use internet on my mobile a lot more than I used to. And as rates get cheaper, it might mean I won’t need my laptop with me as often on future work trips,” Mr Grech, 29, noted.

Fellow smartphone convert Angelina Sciberras, 26, said: “I tend to use data roaming quite a bit while I’m abroad, but it just costs so much right now. I turn data roaming off whenever I’m not using it but prices are still preposterous.”

Ms Sciberras said that while the price reductions were “fantastic”, data roaming prices remained high. “The new price caps are a massive improvement over previous prices but they’re still really high, especially when compared with calls and texts.

“People use the internet all the time nowadays. For younger generations it’s an essential part of life. It needs to be cheap and affordable,” she argued.

But while the roaming price caps have left consumers delighted, mobile phone operators are understandably less happy about the imposed cuts. A spokesman for local operator Melita suggested some operators might opt to create specific tariffs subject to a guaranteed minimum commitment by consumers.

“The largest impact [of the new roaming tariffs] is most likely to be on those operators who for years have charged exorbitant rates,” the spokesman added. The newly-imposed roaming caps did not fluster Vodafone, a company spokesman said.

“Vodafone has always provided innovative roaming products and services and always complies with EU regulation,” a spokesman said, adding that the company was the first operator to reduce and simplify roaming costs. Go did not respond to questions put to it by the time of going to print.