EU telecommunications ministers today backed plans to limit the price of sending text messages by mobile phone while abroad in the European bloc.
Opening the way for the change next year, ministers agreed mobile phone companies could not charge EU phone users more than 11 cent for such messages made while abroad in the region.
The measure, agreed at a meeting in Brussels, is part of broader package aimed at reducing the cost of using mobile phones when consumers travel within the 27-nation European Union.
Among the other steps, mobile operators will have to bill customers by the second after the 31st second of a call made while abroad in the EU, French secretary of state for consumer affairs Luc Chatel said.
The wholesale price of downloading data over a mobile device such as an iPhone or a computer while abroad would also be limited to €1 per megabyte. The European Parliament has to approve the package for the measures to take effect.
