MEP victory on mobile phone charges this summer - 2012-05-10

Bills on mobile phone calls for travellers in Europe will come down from 1st July this year after a plenary session vote in the European Parliament in Brussels today (Thursday).

In time for the summer holidays, Labour Euro-MPs voted to regulate not simply the cost of making calls from abroad and receiving calls from home, but also to bring down the charges for "data roaming" when holidaymakers want to download information from the internet.

The changes should see the cost of making a call drop this year from around 30p/min to 20p/min and the cost of sending a text will fall to 7p. Further changes will follow with the cost of making a call set to fall to 12 p/min - or less - by 2014. Data roaming costs will also be capped for the first time with 1MB costing 40p.

"The mobile phone companies have been ripping off holidaymakers for too long," said Peter Skinner, Labour MEP for the South East of England, who speaks for Labour MEPs on the issue.

"The barrier charging different rates across national boundaries is totally artificial - phone signals don’t know they’ve crossed a border! This week's vote will bring prices down considerably and Brits travelling abroad this summer will really feel the difference in their pocket. It will be cheaper to make a call, send a text or check Facebook or the football scores online.

“If roaming prices have not come all the way down to domestic levels by 2016, then the European Commission will be obliged to propose additional legislation to ensure that roaming charges are identical to domestic prices.

"We wanted to get rid of roaming charges altogether but unfortunately the right wing MEPs supported the phone companies and we had to agree on a temporary measure.

"When you're travelling, you often want to download data, to find out about places to visit, for example. So there will be a dramatic reduction in prices particularly for internet use.

"We will also have 'bill-shock protection', set at 50 euros, so that customers are warned by text if they are approaching their limit while travelling," he said.

ENDS

Notes for Editors:

Maximum charges per minute given in (euro) cents [1]

	(Retail) Cost of calls made	(Retail) cost of calls received	Retail cost of SMS	Megabytes (MB) data costs
Current	35 cents per minute	11 cents per minute	11	n/a but most tariffs average €3 per MB
From July 2012	25 cents per minute	8 cents per minute	8	50
2013	20 cents per minute	7 cents per minute	7	30
2014	15 cents per minute	5 cents per minute	5	20

Across the board, the average reduction in consumer prices compared with 30th June 2012, will be

July 1st 2012: 35%

July 1st 2013: 45%

July 1st 2014: 60%

[1] Where maximum charges are denominated in currencies other than the euro, the initial limits shall be determined in those currencies by applying the reference exchange rates published on 1st May 2012. For the purposes of the subsequent limits, the revised values shall be determined by applying the reference exchange rates so published on 1st May of the relevant calendar year

For queries on the above, please contact David Poyser on 00 32 479790053

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