Cheaper roaming costs are on the way this summer after the European Parliament finalised an agreement this week. Parliament will vote on the deal in May and if approved the new rules will take effect in July.
Cuts are proposed in particular for data and phone calls. These proposals aim to meet the Digital Agenda for Europe pledge to bring roaming tariffs into line with domestic prices by 2015.
Changes put forward by the Industry, Research & Energy Committee propose that a downloaded megabyte, which currently has no price ceiling, would cost no more than 70 cents from July this year, dropping each year to 20 cents by 2014.
There are also changes proposed for calls, with one-minute calls not exceeding 29 cents from July 2012 dropping each year to 19 cents by 2014. SMS will drop to no more than 9 cents in July 2012 and down to 6 cents by 2014.
There has also been agreement to enable consumers to buy roaming services separately from 2014, allowing them to choose alternative suppliers for roaming while retaining their national operators for domestic use and keeping their national phone numbers. These measures will boost competition.
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