EU slashes roaming charges, data gets biggest cut

EU slashes roaming charges and data gets biggest cut
The future's bright

There's great news for anyone who happens to reside in an EU country and fancies hopping over the border to an neighbouring EU member state - roaming on your smartphone gets significantly cheaper from today.

The EU Commission has slashed roaming charges across the board with the introduction of new caps and data is the big winner seeing a 36 per cent decrease, which works out at 45 cents (around 39p) per MB.

Compare this to the price in 2007 and it's dropped 91 per cent in six years, as demand for data on the go increases - in fact data usage has grown by 630 per cent in that time.

Talk the talk

It's not just data which is getting a reduction in price, with the cost of sending a text down by 11 per cent to 8 cents (around 7p) while outgoing calls will fall by around 17 per cent to 24 cents (around 21p) per minute.

Receiving calls will also be reduced by 12 per cent per minute, and the EU Commission is promising more cuts in the future.

On July 1 2014 the EU is set to cap data roaming costs at just 20 cents (around 17p) per MB, while text messages will cost 6 cents (around 5p) and outgoing calls will be 19 cents (around 16p) per minute.

John McCann
Global Managing Editor

John joined TechRadar over a decade ago as Staff Writer for Phones, and over the years has built up a vast knowledge of the tech industry. He's interviewed CEOs from some of the world's biggest tech firms, visited their HQs and has appeared on live TV and radio, including Sky News, BBC News, BBC World News, Al Jazeera, LBC and BBC Radio 4. Originally specializing in phones, tablets and wearables, John is now TechRadar's resident automotive expert, reviewing the latest and greatest EVs and PHEVs on the market. John also looks after the day-to-day running of the site.