Europe Intros New Mobile Internet Caps To Avoid Bill Shock
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Europe had already legislated to cap roaming mobile data prices. Now it’s also capping the amount of data travelers can consume whilst traveling in the continent (details here).
Roaming customers who have not already specified to their network a bill price at which roaming data service should be cut off will, from July 1, find their mobile internet stopped at €50 ($62/£41) minus VAT. Customers must receive a warning message at 80 percent of their roaming limit.
It’s one of the measures introduced under the European Commission’s 2009 roaming regulations to avoid bill shock, like a case the commission cites in which a German tourist in France was charged €46,000 for downloading a TV show.
The EC is also slimming the maximum amount networks can charge per wholesale roaming megabyte from €1 to €0.80 ($98/£0.65), falling to €0.50 in 2011. And it’s reducing maximum call prices to what it says is 73 percent cheaper than in 2005.
Previously enforced EC reductions in call termination rates have made material negative impacts on European carriers’ revenues in the last year, but cuts in data and roaming costs should both minimize bill shock and grow the mobile internet market across the European Economic Area.
@robertandrews
Jun 28, 2010 11:03 AM ET
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