The Traveller's Magazine
Travellers who frequently need to call home while abroad on the Continent won’t need to feel that pang of guilt, knowing the cost of the call or the price they’ll need to pay to update their Facebook status. New rules are in place, slashing the price of mobile roaming fees.
The EU has finally caught up with what travellers want and need: lower mobile roaming fees for calls, texts and data! A new price cap has been put in place for downloading data which means you’ll be able to check your email, download a map, post photos to Facebook and check into FourSquare a whole 35% cheaper than before and 91% cheaper than 2007.
We’ve warned you about it before. The easiest way to cut down on costs and travel cheaper is to turn off your mobile data roaming off as soon as you board your plane for take-off. It’s too easy to rack up a nightmare of a phone bill while you’re travelling abroad but that’s all changing.
5 travel mistakes you can easily avoidThe EU has been making mobile roaming charges a priority since 2007. Before it used to cost €6/MB for data roaming in Europe. Under the new rules, it costs maximum €0.45/MB. Of course, operators are totally free to offer even cheaper rates and the EU hopes to cut the prices even more by next summer.
Mobile roaming price caps (excl. VAT):
- £0.38/MB for downloading data or browsing the internet
- £0.20/minute to make a call
- £0.06/minute to receive a call
- £0.07 to send a text message
Of course with cheaper rates you can bet that Mum and Dad will be expecting more calls home than ever while you’re on holidays in Spain!
