European Roaming Charges Fall

Following the rules set by the European Commission the cost of making and receiving calls within Europe has fallen. From today, mobile phone operators cannot charge more than 32p per minute (plus VAT) for outgoing calls, and 10p per minute (plus VAT) for incoming calls.

The price reductions are part of a plan by the European Commission to equalise roaming and domestic charges by 2015, with the costs reducing by about 6% per year since the regulations were introduced in 2007. O2, Vodafone, Orange and T-Mobile attempted to challenge the regulations in the European Court of Justice, but their claim was dismissed in 2010.

A unified pricing system for Europe should help investment and co-operation between countries already unified in many ways through the European Union. The network operators are already often the same companies in all countries, meaning that the extra charges are purely a way for them to squeeze their customers for extra money between territories that r coming closer together.