Cheaper Mobile phone calls within the EU under new limits set by the European Commission will be fully enforced as from today. According to a BBC report, any customers who do not sign up for a so-called Eurotariff will automatically be put on one from 30 September, unless they are already on another special roaming deal from their mobile phone operator.
Most of the companies in the 27 EU member states, including the Malta based mobile phone operators, have swiftly offered the new tariffs, which slashed the prices in many countries.
The Commission has established limits on the amount mobile phone companies can charge their customers. The move has been welcomed by consumer groups, but some say charges are still too high when using a mobile phone outside the European Union.
Around 50 percent of consumers in Europe are already profiting from substantially reduced tariffs, according to EU figures. Mobile operators must offer EU subscribers tariffs of no more than 49 euro cents a minute for cross-border calls within the 27-nation bloc, while receiving a call should cost no more than 24 cents.
Mobile phone operators had until September 1 to bring new roaming rates into effect irrespective of whether customers requested them or not. "Only in a few cases... we note attempts to delay the effects of the regulation by non-transparent or possibly even anti-competitive behaviour," said the European Telecoms Commissioner Viviane Reding according to a report on EUBusiness.com. Such practices would be "analysed very carefully" by national and European regulators, she added, with sanctions possible.
The impact of the new Eurotariff will vary widely among the European Union's 27 member states because rates differ greatly from one country to another, which was the main reason the caps were deemed necessary.
The new rules do not apply to text messaging nor internet access on a mobile phone. The European Commission says those prices are high, and it hopes operators will lower them voluntarily. And those costs are expected to fall further over the next two years.
Commissioner Reding also wants to reduce so-called termination charges - the cost of transferring calls from one network to another. She told the BBC: "We hope we've now seen the last of excessive roaming charges. "The Commission will, however, continue to monitor prices, in particular for SMS and data roaming, to make sure consumers do not suffer in other ways and to ensure after three years there is no longer a need to regulate. "I hope that operators now understand the EU's ability to act. My message to them: Move now and bring SMS and data roaming charges down quickly, or we will be forced to also intervene there very shortly."
