European mobile data prices set

[edesignuk]

Using a mobile phone abroad in Europe looks set to get cheaper.

European MPs have brokered an agreement that will see the tariffs for making calls, sending text messages and browsing the web fall from July 2009.
...

The agreement caps the cost of sending a text message at 11 cents (10p) throughout Europe.

Currently, texting tariffs vary widely across Europe. On average Europeans pay 29 cents to send a text and some pay as much as 80 cents.

ROAMING COSTS - OUTGOING CALLS
43 cents per minute from July 2009
39 cents per minute from July 2010
35 cents per minute from July 2011

ROAMING COSTS - DATA
1 euro per megabyte from July 2009
80 cents per megabyte from July 2010
50 cents per megabyte from July 2011

BBC.

I'm not a great traveller so this doesn't really impact me, but it's about time. Calls, text and especially data costs have been outrageous for long enough.

 

[0098386]

This could be quite smart. Currently in our family we use sim-free phones and when on the mainland just pop in the sim card for that country. It works out well but the numbers obviously aren't transferred so business calls etc don't get through.