EU reaches compromise on capping mobile 'roaming' rates

Hopes of cheaper mobile phone “roaming” rates in time for the summer holidays remain alive after a compromise deal between EU governments and Euro MPs this afternoon.

At stake is the amount by which mobile phone operators will have to slash the cost of “roaming” – the prices callers pay to make and receive mobile calls while abroad.

Euro MPs last month opted for cutting phone bills by about two-thirds, setting a maximum tariff of 40 cents per minute for making calls on a mobile from abroad.

And for receiving calls on a mobile while travelling in other EU countries the cost would be just 15 cents.

Those were much lower rates than the maximum suggested by EU governments of 59c and 30c respectively.

Now the two sides have split the difference, agreeing to reduce charges to a maximum of 49c for calling home from elsewhere in the EU and no more than 24c for receiving mobile calls.

The deal includes reducing the maximum automatically by about 3c a year for making calls and 2c for receiving calls for the first three years after the deal comes into force.

And although today’s compromise still requires formal endorsement at a European Parliament meeting in Strasbourg on May 24, the odds are that it will now win the necessary approval.

The final step is a formal nod from EU telecoms ministers on June 7 – leaving time to trigger the lower rates for the benefit of mobile users as they travel around Europe this summer.

Some roaming tariffs can already be as low as just 5c a minute – but more often rates are much higher and in some case there is a mark-up of up to 400% compared with domestic calls.