Using Mobile phones when traveling to Europe

Using Mobile phones when traveling to Europe

You can use your mobile phone anywhere in Europe and in many other parts of the world thanks to the Europe Union’s GSM and UMTS technical standard. Mobile phone users abroad have enjoyed significant savings of around 60 % thanks to the Europe Union roaming regulation which sets limits or ‘Eurotariffs’ on international roaming rates for voice calls. The cost of sending a text from abroad has also been substantially reduced and now costs no more than 11 cents (excluding VAT).

Eurotariff maximum per minute roaming charge in euro (excl. VAT)

	Average charge summer 2006	1 July 2010	1 July 2011
Mobile calls made abroad	€1.10	€0.39	€0.35
Mobile calls received abroad	€0.58	€0.15	€0.11

Operators are free to offer cheaper rates so look out for the best deals. Customers now receive an automated message of the charges that apply for calls, texts and data-roaming services such as surfing the web or downloading movies. A mechanism for protecting consumers from ‘bill shock’ in data-roaming services has been introduced which means that, following a warning, the consumer’s mobile connection to the Internet while abroad is cut when their bill reaches a specified limit. If the customer does not specify a limit, a default cut-off limit of €50 per month is applied.

An Europe Union website (ec.europa.eu/roaming) lists the Eurotariff offered by operators in all 27 Europe Union countries and has links to their websites. Tariffs for sending text messages or using data services can also be compared.

Source :   European Commission