European Data and Text Charges to drop!

Last Friday a proposal made initially by EU Telecoms Commissioner Viviane Reding won the backing of EU Telecoms ministers.

The proposal is to cap the charges of Text Messages and Data charges whilst roaming.

These caps will see a Text message costing a maximum of 9p (11 euro cents) and 1MB of data capped at 83p or 1 Euro.

This is significantly lower than the current average of 29p for a text message and some huge charges for data.

This is great news for consumers and also I believe mobile operators as hopefully these measures will help customers to use their phones without worrying about the charges or even worse experiencing 'bill shock' where they really have no idea what the costs are when roaming.

A great recommendation that has been put forward is to cut the data connection if it goes over £41 or 50 Euros to avoid this bill shock.

The proposal now goes to the European Parliament and if successful will come into effect July 2009.