European Parliament votes for a cap on mobile roaming charges

10.30.00am BST (GMT +0100) Wed 30th May 2007

Mobile phone

The European Parliament voted last Wednesday to put a cap on the cost of making or receiving mobile phone calls when travelling in another EU Member State. MEPs are now pushing for the new rates to come into effect before the summer holidays.

The text of the Regulation, agreed between the European Parliament and the Council of Ministers, sets out the following:

A cap of 33p a minute on the cost of making a roaming call within the EU, with this rate to fall to (29p by 2009;

A maximum charge of 16p a minute to receive a roaming call, with this to fall to 12p by 2009;

Customers will have two months after being offered the Eurotariff by their operators to choose whether they want to opt for it; if they make no choice, they would be given the Eurotariff unless they already benefited from a specific roaming package;

Following this European Parliament 1st reading, the Council of Ministers now has to give its formal approval and the Regulation must be published in the EU Official Journal before it enters into force. The Council is expected to agree the text in June, with publication in the Official Journal shortly after.