The cost of phone calls abroad has been gradually reduced by the EU
The cost of using a mobile phone in another European Union country will fall again on Monday.
New EU limits come into force which will reduce the amount mobile phone providers can charge for making or receiving calls abroad.
It will also bring down the cost of accessing the internet.
For the past six years the EU has been forcing prices down by placing a cap on the charges providers can impose and reducing that limit each year.
Data ratesThe cost of making mobile phone calls outside a person's own country, known as roaming, has traditionally been very high.
The latest cuts come into force on Monday, when the maximum cost of making a call will fall by a fifth to 24 euro cents a minute or just over 20p.
But the biggest change is to data charges - the cost of using the internet or applications linked to it.
That will fall by roughly a third to 45 euro cents per megabyte or about 38.5p.
However, these reductions will only apply within the borders of the European Union.
In other countries charges both for making calls and for using the internet are likely to remain higher.
New mobile roaming price caps | ||
|---|---|---|
| Summer 2012 | Summer 2013 | |
| Euro prices are constant, pounds are at current exchange rate. Source: European Commission | ||
| Internet browsing | 70 cents/ 60 pence per MB | 45 cents/ 39 pence per MB |
| Making a call | 29 cents/ 25 pence per minute | 24 cents/ 21 pence per minute |
| Receiving a call | 8 cents/ 7 pence per minute | 7 cents/ 6 pence per minute |
| Sending a text | 9 cents/ 8 pence per SMS | 8 cents/ 7 pence per SMS |
Because Croatia joins EU on Monday, the same day as the price caps are introduced, the difference is most stark there.
Travellers to Croatia see biggest change | ||
|---|---|---|
| Data used during a week's trip | June 2013 data charges | July 2013 data charges |
| June data calculated at €6 per MB, July data at 45 cents. Pounds are at current exchange rate. Source: European Commission | ||
| Checking a map five times | € 30 /£25.68 | € 2.25 /£1.92 |
| Checking social media accounts every day for half an hour | € 210 /£179.76 | € 15.75 /£13.48 |
| Uploading one photo every day | € 84 /£71.90 | € 6.30 /£5.39 |
| Sending one email per day | € 0.84 /£0.72 | € 0.06 /£0.05 |
| TOTAL | € 324.84 /£278.06 | € 24.36 /£20.85 |
Last year, the European Parliament passed regulations to make using a mobile phone abroad significantly cheaper.
The EU said the regulations were designed to prevent "bill shock".
This is the moment when travellers discover they have have run up huge bills after making calls and using data applications, such as maps, while away.
Source: BBC News - Business http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-23098623#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa
