Firm cuts Euro roaming charges

Telefonica will make its roaming charges a lot more transparent this summer

Telefonica, which owns the UK's mobile operator O2 has pledged cuts in the cost of data roaming changes. The reductions come in the form of a number of packages that business travelers can sign up to and could mean savings of up to forty percent.

Telefonica said that the cost of sending a text message home from anywhere in the EU would be a maximum of .32 euros – receiving a text will be free, while worldwide access to data will be capped at 1 euro p/MB. These new rates will come in between February and July of this year.

Heavy users will be able to sign up to packages most suited to them, according to Telefonica.
For a monthly fee of 50 euros, business travellers will get 50MB of data on any roaming partner network worldwide. While the firm will also increase the transparency of its billing.

From March laptop users will be able to use new software called, ‘Connection Manager’, which lets them monitor their usage, while all other customers can receive text messages with pricing and roaming information on them.