Roaming rip-offs must be tackled
A press release by Ian Hudghton
SNP MEP and Party President Ian Hudghton has welcomed proposals from the European Commission to further lower the costs of using mobile phones abroad.
Today's package of measures to lower charges for mobile internet use when abroad (data roaming), follows last week's announcement of further reductions in the cap on mobile voice calls and text messages from other EU countries.
The European Commission proposes to introduce a cap of 80p per megabyte for data roaming from July 2012, falling to 45p in July 2014. Currently, users are charged up to £2 per megabyte for data roaming. By 2014 mobile voice calls and texts from other EU countries will be capped at 21.5p a minute for outgoing calls and 9p a minute for incoming calls.
Ian Hudghton has been campaigning for reduced mobile phone roaming charges in Europe since 2005.
Ian Hudghton commented:
"This is a welcome step forward in further reducing mobile phone roaming charges, and represents a victory for consumers.
"We've already had some success in reducing charges for voice calls and text messages when roaming in other EU countries. These costs are set to fall further and by 2014 outgoing calls made from mobiles in other European countries will be capped at 21.5p a minute.
"But with more and more people using mobile devices that rely on downloading data, it's absolutely vital that we get a fair pricing structure in place and encourage competition in the market. At present mobile phone companies are able to charge a not so small fortune for data roaming and this is totally unacceptable. That's why we have to end the data roaming rip-off, and I will be supporting these measures in the European Parliament.
"I'm also pleased that the Commission proposes to keep the cap in place for all services when roaming in the EU until 2022. By bringing some predictability to the market, this will hopefully help encourage new operators to enter the field and offer more choice for consumers."
For more information see the European Commission announcement at http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/11/835&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en
