Vodafone to cut roaming charges by 40%

VODAFONE is to cut the cost of roaming calls by 40% following pressure from the European Union.

Irish holidaymakers and business travellers currently pay between €3.56 and €8.76 for a four-minute call home from other EU countries.

The move by Vodafone is expected to put pressure on other service providers to follow suit.

The company said the average cost of a call should fall from over 90 cent to less than 55 cent per minute.

They have promised to do reciprocal deals with other European mobile operators from October next that they say should see costs cut to a maximum of 45 cent a minute.

Chief Executive of the British based company, Arun Sarin, announcing the changes, said, “The European Commission and European Parliament have made it clear that they expect to see change.

“By addressing both retail and wholesale prices, we are providing a platform for sustainable, lower retail prices across Europe in the future. We believe the market is the best way to meet customer needs, not regulation.”

European Commissioner Viviane Reding is to introduce a regulation in June to force companies to charge the same for roaming as national calls.

This followed a survey that found some companies had actually increased their prices over the past six months despite several warnings from the EU.

Roaming charges for a four-minute call range from 20 cent to 13 across the 25 member states, giving operators profits of between 90% and 100%.

Last year the commission started legal proceedings against German company Deutsche Telekom T-Mobile and Vodafone for overcharging visitors using their mobile phones in Germany.

Following pressure from the Irish Government, Vodafone was the first mobile phone company in Ireland to announce the elimination of roaming charges between Ireland, the North and Britain.