EU caps mobile roaming charges

FROM TODAY European holiday makers and people who travel in their work will no longer be running the risk of running up a huge mobile phone bill.

New rules from the European Union come into force today that force mobile phone companies to observe a ceiling for mobile phone charges, thereby saving people from coming home to bills so large that folks might risk injury from fainting.

Digital Agenda Commissioner Neelie Kroes said, "Protection against data roaming bill shocks is a useful step towards building customers' confidence to use mobile networks to surf the Internet when travelling around Europe. Such confidence is essential if people and businesses are to use the Internet to its full potential".

Talking of shocks, the EU reminds us of two cases from last year, one involving a German traveller who watched a TV programme and paid roughly £40,000 for the privilege and a UK student who ran up a mobile bill of £8,000 in a month of roaming abroad.

Under the new regulations mobile network operators must offer a monthly cut off limit of €50, or roughly £45 in real money, and users will be sent some sort of warning when they reach eighty per cent of their chosen limit. We can only hope that they will not be charged to receive texts when they are away otherwise that might be the most pointless text message to get. µ