It will now be cheaper to make cellphone calls, send a text message or surf the web when traveling in Europe. The new rates, which the European Parliament formally adopted in March after months of debate, will go into effect tomorrow, July 1.
Reuters said it will now be up to 60 percent cheaper to send mobile text messages, or to surf the Web via a laptop. Before it cost about 28 euros cents ($0.37) on average to send a text message. Now operators will be capped at 11 euro cents ($0.15). “The roaming rip-off is now coming to an end,” EU Telecoms Commissioner Viviane Reding said in a statement.
Roaming calls: A call will be capped at 43 euro cents per minute vs. 46 cents previously, and at 19 cents, down from 22 cents, when receiving calls abroad. Another round of price cuts will come in July 2010 and 2011.
Downloading data: It will now cost a maximum of 1 euro per megabyte “at the wholesale level” compared with about 1.68 euros today.

{"source":"https:\/\/gigaom.com\/2009\/06\/30\/419-eu-roaming-rates-cheaper-starting-tomorrow\/wijax\/49e8740702c6da9341d50357217fb629","varname":"wijax_5b256c212762be230999a4f14eafc053","title_element":"header","title_class":"widget-title","title_before":"%3Cheader%20class%3D%22widget-title%22%3E","title_after":"%3C%2Fheader%3E"}