Mobile Data Roaming Charges Fall by 50pc in EU

On Tuesday, the European Union, an economic and political union of 28 member states that are primarily located in Europe, cut mobile phone roaming charges across the region by 50 percent to revamp the mode of communication across the 28-country bloc. In simple terms, people with mobile contracts from European providers will be charged less to send text messages, make calls, and browse the internet when using their mobile phones in countries within the European Union.

 

European companies have already raised roaming charges for European customers traveling outside the union as a way to counterbalance the lost revenue. The main goal of Europe’s policy makers is to transform the region’s telecommunication network into a pan-regional or geographic network in which customers are not charged extra for using their mobile phones when traveling in other European Union countries.

“The new ruling won’t have a massive impact on the market,” said Jessica Ekholm, an analyst with the technology research firm Gartner, who added that 40 percent of Britons did not use roaming services while traveling overseas. “People still haven’t got used to using roaming abroad.”

The reductions in roaming charges will only affect people who have contracts with local operators like Deutsche Telekom of Germany and Vodafone of Britain. International carriers, American giants like AT&T and Verizon Wireless, will still have control to set their own roaming charges for their customers traveling in the European Union. Europe’s policy makers are attempting to phase out all mobile roaming charges in the region by the end of the 2015.

“This huge drop in data roaming prices will make a big difference to all of us this summer,” Neelie Kroes, the European commissioner in charge of the region’s digital agenda, said recently in a statement. “But it is not enough.”

While mobile data users are set to benefit from the price cuts, telecom operators warn that they will not be able to make costly investments to upgrade their mobile infrastructure.