The European Commission on Wednesday unveiled a proposal that would extend caps on mobile roaming charges and allow consumers to use a different carrier when traveling abroad.
Under the proposal, roaming rates would drop over the next few years so that by July 1, 2014, customers would pay no more than €0.24 per minute to make a call, €0.10 per minute to receive a call, €0.10 to send a text, or €0.50 per MB to download data or surf the Web. The rates would remain in effect until at least mid-2016.
"This proposal tackles the root cause of the problem—the lack of competition on roaming markets—by giving customers more choice and by giving alternative operators easier access to the roaming market," Neelie Kroes, European Commission vice president for the Digital Agenda, said in a statement. "It would also immediately bring down prices for data roaming, where operators currently enjoy outrageous profit margins."
As many of you know, traveling overseas with a mobile phone can be an expensive affair. Unlimited data plans convert to per MB charges, and you can come home to a massive bill. The EU has been working on this issue, dubbed "bill shock," for several years. In 2008, it agreed to cap wholesale prices of roamed mobile phone texts and data downloading between July 2009 and July 2012. Today's proposal, the EU said, will pass the savings to consumers.
Under the plan, consumers could sign up for a separate phone service while traveling, but use the same phone number. Data charges for the trip would be capped at €50, unless the customer specifically says otherwise.
Currently, there is no per megabyte cap for data service, but the EU proposal would set it at €0.90 by July 1, 2012. A year later, it would drop to €0.70, and by July 1, 2014, it would be at €0.50.
Rates for voice calls and text messages would decrease in a similar manner. The current rate for placing a call is €0.35, which would drop to €0.32, €0.28, and €0.24 in the next three years. Text message rates, meanwhile, remain at €0.11 until July 1, 2013, when they would drop to €0.10.
The proposal must now be approved by the European Parliament and EU's Council of Ministers.
In the U.S., the FCC handed down rules in April that will require wireless carriers to offer "reasonable" data roaming rates. The rules will let wireless users stay connected when they travel outside their own network's coverage areas by connecting to another provider's network, the FCC said. That prompted a lawsuit from Verizon, which argued that that the commission does not have the authority to establish such restrictions.