The European Union wants to make roaming charges a thing of the past

More European mobile operators should offer free international roaming, following the example set by U.S. operator T-Mobile, a European Commission vice president said Monday. After enforcing a series of reductions in voice and data roaming charges across the European Union over the last four years, the latest round of which takes effect Tuesday, Neelie Kroes is ready to take the ultimate step of abolishing roaming charges entirely by late 2015. She hopes to win the support of national telecommunications ministers for that by the end of this year. From Tuesday, European mobile roamers will see a big cut in the cost of roaming, with data charges dropping 55 percent or more compared to last summer.

The new EU roaming charge cap being introduced at midnight tonight is just in time! New figures published today by Which? show that nearly one in six people have experienced a mobile phone bill shock after returning from a holiday in the last year. A quarter ended up being charged more than £40 over their usual monthly usage. The roaming charge cap takes effect from tomorrow – 1 July – and will lower costs for people travelling within the EU. Under the new rules the maximum charge for outgoing calls, excluding VAT, will be 19 cents per minute, six cents for outgoing text messages and 20 cents for a MB download of data. However, the new caps only apply when you use a mobile within the EU. Worryingly nearly half of mobile users who have been abroad in the last 12 months said they didn’t know that the price caps don’t apply to the whole of Europe. If you’re travelling further afield you could still suffer from bill shock on your return, unless you plan beforehand. What should you do to avoid huge charges? For starters, don’t download films, games or music abroad. Do it through home wi-fi before you leave.