Mobile phone roaming fees in the European Union have been dramatically decreased from today, the latest stage in move that will also see the abolition of all roaming charges in the EU from June next year.
Consumers currently pay roaming charges whenever they connect to an operator based abroad.
The charges are in addition to the cost of the call itself, and for short calls they can make up a large proportion of the overall fee.
The biggest reductions are for people downloading data - such as emails, pictures or social media - where the roaming charge has been cut by about 75%.
The EU will scrap phone roaming charges outright on 15 June, 2017.
"We're in the home stretch now before the end of roaming charges in 2017," Andrus Ansip, the European Commission's Vice President for the digital single market said.
"This is not only about Europeans saving money, this is about bringing down barriers in the digital single market."
With today's change, European users travelling on the continent will pay no more than an extra €0.05 per minute for calls, €0.02 per SMS and €0.05 per megabyte of data.
Sinn Féin MEP Matt Carthy has welcomed the reduction in costs but said that the charges could and should have been abolished by now.
Mr Carthy said: "Roaming charges have been a severe nuisance and injustice to thousands of people living in the border region who daily commute to work daily across the border, resulting in increased phone bills.
"It also places a barrier for business start-ups and cross border co-operation as well as those who travel across Europe on holidays.
"Sinn Féin has campaigned strongly at EU level for the abolition of roaming charges and while I welcome the latest development, it is regrettable that charges will continue for another year."
