From July 1, 2011, the costs of making and receiving calls and using the Internet in other European countries will be subject to price limits set by the EC. This will make it easier for UK mobile phone owners to understand their charges and will hopefully eradicate unexpectedly high bill shock problems for data roaming. How will the caps work?
Caps on the Costs of Making and Receiving Calls in Europe
From July 1, there will be a cost limit set on any calls you make in other European countries. The caps mean that a phone company cannot charge more than 32p/€0.35 (+ VAT) a minute when you make a call or 10p/€0.11 (+ VAT) a minute if someone calls you.
How Will Caps Affect Mobile Roaming?
Although high call costs caught out a lot of consumers in the past, more were left liable for extremely high charges from Internet roaming. The European Commission has set out a range of rules to help curb high bills and to make it easier to know how much you might be spending. There are three elements that operators will have to commit to.
Firstly, they have been told that they must notify a customer of data roaming costs whenever they enter a country in the EU. Accounts will also be given a usage charge limit – this will be set at a default of €50 (£41) + VAT unless the phone owner specifies a different amount. So, for example, if you don't set your own cap, you should not be able to run up a mobile web usage bill of more than €50. Companies also have to notify you when you reach 80% of your limit by text, email or computer pop-up window.
According to the website of the European Parliament (" Roaming charges drop further 1 July ", June 30, 2011) a further cap will be imposed on wholesale data charges. This will limit the cost that one phone operator can charge another for data to €0.5 per MB. Consumers won't necessarily see any benefits from this limit, however, as companies are not required to pass any savings on to customers at this stage.
Why is the European Commission Setting Limits on Mobile Phone Costs?
Making calls from abroad for Europeans has historically been charged at much higher rates than call plans within their own countries. In recent years, many users have also been caught out by excessive charges for data roaming and have become liable for running up high bills without realising how much they were actually spending.
In a BBC News report ("Bill limits for EU data roaming usage begins", July 1, 2011) the European Commissioner for Digital Agenda, Neelie Kroes, stated that this particular cap would ensure that: "There will be no more bill shocks for tourists or business travellers surfing the internet with smart phones or laptops while in another EU country."
These rulings are part of a wider initiative to equalise the costs of domestic and roaming charges on a Europe-wide basis. The concept of price regulation started in 2007 and it is anticipated that the program will have achieved its target by 2015.
Carol Finch - Carol Finch is the Topic Editor for Retirement Planning, Budgeting, E-Commerce & Technical/Business Writing on Suite101.
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