News

European tourists may be able to take advantage of lower mobile roaming costs from next year if proposals from a European Commissioner go through.

Viviane Reding, the EU telecoms commissioner, has launched an initiative to cap charges on sending texts, making voice calls and downloading data to phones in European countries.

The proposal, which will be voted on in spring 2009, could enable EU citizens to send texts for 9p, compared to the current average of 23p, while voice calls could be cut from 36p to 27p a minute.

British tourists in Spain could be among those to benefit most from the changes, as the cost of sending a text from the country can currently be close to 50p.

Ms Reding said: 'Using your mobile phone abroad in the EU should not cost unjustifiably more than at home, whether for making calls, sending texts or surfing the web.

'Europe's 37m tourists and 110m business travellers are waiting for the promise of the borderless single market to finally have a positive impact on their phone bills.'

Ms Reding was critical of the mobile phone industry for failing to cut roaming charges itself. Limits were first placed on roaming charges in September 2007 but these applied only to voice calls.

Opodo cheap flights, hotels and car hire - let the journey begin!