EU mobile roaming rules to come into force on 1 July

Reding: "Great news for European customers"

EU roaming rules expected to cut consumers' bills by 60 per cent will become effective across Europe on 1 July after new regulations were adopted today.

The move will make sure that mobile phone users will not pay more than €0.11 (9p) plus VAT for sending a text message while abroad in the EU. Data roaming charges – the cost of surfing the web while abroad – will be subject to a wholesale cap of €1 per megabyte downloaded, compared to the current average EU wholesale price of €1.68 per megabyte.

"Today's unanimous adoption means the new roaming rules will bring instant benefits to consumers as of 1 July," said European telecoms commissioner Viviane Reding.

"This is great news for European citizens, who will be able to go on holiday this summer and roam with peace of mind and without the fear of bill shocks.”

Another change introduced by the EU is that mobile operators must bill for roaming calls by the second after the first 30 seconds – instead of by the minute – a measure expected to cut phone bills by as much as 24 per cent.