Texting and roaming charges may fall by up to 65%

CHEAPER texting and mobile phone roaming came a step closer yesterday when Ireland and other EU countries agreed they should be slashed by up to two-thirds.

EU communications ministers also agreed that the price of downloading data such as emails, web access, music and even TV programmes on your mobile phone will be capped.

Communications Minister Eamon Ryan said he believed the reductions would be handed on to consumers and helps boost the whole demand for data on mobile devices and develop this area.

“Ireland is in the vanguard of this whole area — from medical diagnostics to smart parking. The digital economy is growing at twice the pace of the rest of the economy and will help lift us out of the recession,” he said.

At the moment, making calls on your mobile phone when abroad costs an average of 46 cents a minute. Ministers agreed that this should drop by 3c a year to reach 34c by July 2012.

There should be a similar drop in the cost of receiving calls on your mobile when abroad, from the current 22c a minute to 10c by mid-2012. While roaming was capped for the first time last year, the EU wants to cap the price of sending SMS or text messages from July next year also.

The EU ministers agreed that the roaming charges for sending texts across the EU should be capped at 11c, before VAT. “Ireland is the texting capital of the world so people should notice these caps in their pockets. It is a very positive development,” said Mr Ryan.

The cost of downloading a megabyte of data throughout the EU is €5.40, while in Ireland it varies from €6 to €1.80 depending on the customers’ arrangement with the company.

Capping the wholesale price at €1 a megabyte, Mr Ryan said that should mean a substantial drop for consumers especially since there is competition between telecoms companies for this business.

Companies will also be forced to alert customers when they have run up bills for the downloading of more than €50. “We want to take the shock factor out of this where people are not aware until they get their bill that downloading something they consider to be small could in fact cost them a substantial sum of money”, he said.

The European Parliament must now agree to the changes and are expected to do so early next year.