From today, travellers' data roaming limits will be automatically set at €50, excluding VAT, under the European Union's roaming rules designed to stop consumers unwittingly running up heart-stopping bills when accessing the internet on their mobile phone when abroad.
The European Union on Monday also announced lower roaming call price caps. Under the rules, operators are obliged to notify users when they reach 80 per cent of their data-roaming bill limit. Consumers may opt to set the limit higher or lower than €50.
The operator will have to cut off the mobile internet connection once the limit has been reached, unless customers have indicated they want to continue data roaming that particular month.
Maximum wholesale prices for data roaming have fallen from €1 to €0.80 per megabyte. Next year, the price is to fall further to €0.50 per MB.
Consumers across the EU are to be charged no more than €0.39 per minute (excluding VAT), instead of the current €0.43 by operators. In turn, call receipt within the EU will cost a maximum of €0.15 a minute (excluding VAT), instead of €0.19.
That means making and receiving calls while abroad within the EU will now be 73 per cent cheaper than in 2005, when the EU first started to deal with excessive roaming charges.
Receiving a voice mail message while roaming is now free of charge, but consumers will continue to be charged for listening to their voice mail messages. The cost of SMS remains unchanged at 11 cents per message.
From last March, the EU's 2009 Roaming Regulation required mobile operators to offer their customers the possibility to set their own monthly cut-off price limit for data roaming through mobile phones or computers.
If customers have not chosen a different cut-off level, operators will have to impose a monthly default cut-off for data roaming of €50 excluding VAT from today.
For non-eurozone countries, the amount will be calculated based on the exchange rate published in the EU's Official Journal as of June 1. These measures mean users will no longer receive massive bills, potentially running into thousands of euros as has happened, after downloading music or having watched videos on their phones or computers while in another member state.
Last year, a German traveller in France downloaded a TV programme and ran up a bill of €46,000. Operators are to notify their consumers that their data roaming limits are close to being reached by text message, e-mail or by a pop-up window on computer screens.
Regulators within member states are to ensure that operators comply with the new rules on data roaming and the lower prices of voice calls.
A year ago, the EU's Council of Ministers and the European Parliament, acting on a proposal from the European Commission, adopted revised rules that cut roaming prices further in instalments so that by next July the maximum roaming charges would be €0.35 per minute for calls made and €0.11 for calls received while abroad. The 2009 roaming rules will apply until the end of June 2012.
The Commission said it will continue to monitor developments in roaming services and the correct implementation of rules, in close cooperation with BEREC, the Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications.
Early last month, Vodafone Malta reduced its data roaming rates to €1.75/MB on Vodafone preferred networks and €2.50/MB for other EU operators for customers on 'pay monthly' plans.
Vodafone customers are able to subscribe to a data roaming notification service.
Meanwhile, a spokesman for Go told The Times Business: "Go's rates for EU roaming are the following: When roaming in the EU, outgoing calls towards EU countries will be €0.46 per minute, charged with an initial 30 second increment and then per second. Incoming calls will be charged at €0.17 per minute charged per second. SMS remains unchanged at €0.13.
"With regards to data, the rate of €2.50 per MB applies for post-paid/ pay monthly customers; and €3.50 per MB for pre-paid/pay as you go customers. Go offers data roaming bundles for more convenience: €10 for a 5MB bundle , €40 for a 25MB bundle and, €75 for a 50M bundle. On EU data roaming, the EU only regulates the wholesale EU data roaming rate and not the retail rate.
"With regards to data roaming notification, Go provides a welcome notification page whenever a customer logs on to a web page in a foreign country and this page informs him or her about the applicable rates, and the availability of the purchasing data bundles. In addition, Go offers SMS notification on the client's smartphone or internet key application with information on the applicable rates, bundle availability and how to purchase them, as well as notification when a certain amount is reached in terms of spend. One informs customers who do not wish to make use of data roaming that in order not to be charged they can disable the data feature on their device."
A spokesman for Melita said: "Melita's mobile roaming rates are in line with the EU tariffs. Melita had proactively reduced the rates last year to reflect even the decrease that comes into effect from July 1 this year. The notification for the avoidance of bill shocks is also being implemented."