Here it is: After months of threats and warnings, the European Commission announced today that it will end “roaming rip-offs” for text messages abroad after calls to the industry to cut rates themselves have “not been answered.” Telecoms commissioner Viviane Reding said she would recommend an October timeline for proposing a rule to slash SMS rates. The commissioner said they would also seek “to put an end to bill shocks” on roaming data rates, which she noted continues to be “heavily overpriced.” No specific price cut guide has been announced yet, and Reding said the Commission would have to discuss how to deal with data roaming. The industry itself has argued that mobile data is still a nascent service that needs more time to establish itself before price cuts are imposed on it.

According to the EC’s own research, sending a text from abroad costs 10 times more than a domestic message. The average cost of a roaming text message in the EU between October 2007 and March 2008 was 29 euro cents (£0.23)) according to the European Regulators’ Group (ERG), but can be as high as 80 euro cents (£0.64) for Belgian travelers. The ERG said that a more “appropriate price” would be between 11 to 15 euro cents (£0.08-£0.12)) per text. Meanwhile, the Commission has created a handy web site to show European travelers how much they are currently being fleeced by their operator. (Release).

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