The benevolent bunch that is European Commission finally decided to look into mobile phone roaming fees, deeming them too steep. Apparently, the margins are “unjustifiably high” and the EU plans to erase the difference between roaming and local calls by 2015.
With that in mind, the EC introduced a cap on calls, texts and data downloads this summer. The caps stand at 39 euro cents per minute (VAT not included) for calls in roaming whereas receiving a call in roaming should not exceed 15 euro cents per minute.
Phone companies expressed willingness to go with this plan and say they have been working on it. The EC, however, found many EU operators to still linger near those caps and formed a commission that would facilitate the process. Good luck with that.
We find it strange that it would take this much to figure out that telecom operators make a killing on roaming and will most probably continue to do so (Oh Skype, where art though sub.ed.). While we're not complaining, it's easy for one to think that these officials either don’t own phones, don’t leave their respective countries or have too much money to keep track of when paying their bills.
Wherever you may roam
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