Eurotariff set to cut roaming charges

The new EU Roaming Regulation will come into force on 30 June, cutting roaming charges across all 27 EU member states.

The regulation, which will run for three years, requires mobile phone operators to offer a eurotariff of a maximum €0.49 per minute for making calls within the EU and €0.24 per minute for receiving them.

Operators will have one month to introduce the charges, which will be lowered further in 2008 and 2009. It is hoped that after this period there will be no further need for regulation.

The eurotariff has been introduced in an effort to control the excessive mobile roaming charges which have been applied both to consumers and businesses.

When the regulation is introduced, National regulatory authorities and the European Commission will monitor prices to make sure consumers aren’t penalised in other ways.

Wholesale caps for the prices that operators charge each other for roaming will also be introduced in two months. For the next 12 months the wholesale cap is set at €0.30.

According to the European Commission, there are 147 million roaming users in Europe, 110 million of which are business users.