EU wants cheaper mobile data
2007-07-23 22:30

August 30 is the date for common EU prices on phone calls within Europe. But the ludicrous prices on mobile data remain. Now the EU gives the European mobile operators a warning: If you do not lower your prices voluntarily, the EU might have to cap them the same way as has now been done with the voice tariffs within Europe.

The European Union has adopted new regulations for mobile operators to follow, setting a price roof at 49 cents per minute to call to another European country. The cap will start from August 30. Now the EU commission warns operators that it might come to regulate the pricing on SMS and mobile data as well.

The warning is from an anonymous spokesperson at EU commissioner Vivianne Reding's office to ZDNet.co.uk.

- In the next few months, the European Commission will be assessing the impact of the roaming regulation and, depending on developments in the market, will decide whether the regulation should be extended in time and scope to cover SMS and MMS messaging and the transfer of data. […] mobile operators are, however, encouraged to reduce tariffs for these services voluntarily as from now.

With the prices of today it is in practice impossible to use mobile data services in another European country. As an example, it would cost a Swedish reader around 5 and 10 euro to download this Mobil Magazine's page when visiting the Netherlands.

Av: Elias Nordling, Jonas Kämpe