European Union Telecom Commissioner Viviane Reding has warned mobile operators that the commission could introduce new legislation to standardize data roaming fees if operators don’t lower prices voluntarily by July 1.
Similar to last summer’s debate about roaming fees for voice calls, the EU telecom ministry has been hinting that charges consumers pay for SMS and data roaming between countries are too high, and often unclear.
Reding reportedly said in a commission meeting: “If there’s not a miracle happening by July 1, I will come up with a regulation.”
The commission said that since it capped voice roaming fees last September, charges for making calls out of consumers’ home areas have dropped by up to 60%. But those caps did little to reign in the costs of sending a text message while over the border. The commission claims that sending a text message at home can cost between 7 and 15 U.S. cents and the average cost of sending a text while abroad is between 43 cents and 80 cents.
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