EU told to 'do more' to cut cost of mobile roaming

Polish MEP Roza Thun has urged the EU to do more to help bring down the costs of mobile phone roaming charges.

Speaking in parliament, the centre-right deputy said there was still a "huge" difference between calling, texting and downloading data at home and in other member states.

A debate she hosted heard that making or receiving a mobile phone call abroad actually fell recently.

Such calls are now cheaper in the EU July but will still cost a lot more than a domestic call. The EU would like to see tariff differences disappear altogether by 2015.

From 1 July, it will cost €0.35 a minute to make a phone call and €0.11 to receive one. The cost of sending a text message remains at a maximum of €0.11 while it costs nothing to receive one.

The €50/month limit on surfing the net when abroad remains in place although users can choose a higher or lower limit.

Operators must warn customers when they reach 80 per cent of their limit. For the first time, the price cap on roaming costs includes data.

Despite these attempts by the European commission to lower roaming costs within the 27 EU member states, Thun said that charges, particularly for data roaming, remain relatively high.

This, she said, was particularly the case for smartphone users who she says can be totally unaware of just how much data they chew through using Google maps to find their way to a restaurant or bar.

The EPP member said, "The rise of the smartphone and our increasing reliance on laptops and tablets, plus cloud-based software applications that need an internet connection to work, means many of us still find ourselves hostages to high wifi and roaming charges."

She said it was for this exact reason that a new EU-wide campaign has been launched designed to cut roaming charges still further.

Called "Europeans for fair roaming" (www.fairroaming.org), the initiative has already attracted the support of nine different organisations representing over 120,000 people, is supported by six MEPs and has gathered thousands of signatures on a petition.

Thun, a member of the internal market committee, said, "The network is calling on all EU institutions to take steps to end the current unfair practice of mobile phone operators charging high roaming fees when you use your mobile phone in another EU country.

"We want the commission's new proposals to be implemented and improved upon in order to ensure a borderless European market for telecommunications."

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