EU approves voice, data, SMS roaming caps

The European Parliament has approved new price caps for mobile network roaming within the EU, including voice, data/internet and SMS texting. From 1 July 2009 the cost of sending an SMS whilst abroad is capped at EUR0.11, whilst from that date wholesale data roaming charges are capped at EUR1 per MB (which will drop to EUR0.80 in July 2010 and EUR0.50 in July 2011). Maximum per-minute voice call roaming charges will also fall: to EUR0.43 for outgoing and EUR0.19 for incoming calls whilst abroad on 1 July 2009; to EUR0.39 and EUR0.15 respectively in July 2010; and to EUR0.35 and EUR0.11 respectively in July 2011 (compared to current roaming caps of EUR0.46/EUR0.22 on calls made/received). All prices exclude VAT. Other measures approved include compulsory per-second billing for the entire duration of calls received whilst abroad, and after the first 30 seconds for outgoing calls.