Surfing abroad, pay less

The European Commission continues to take aim against roaming charges.

It will force mobile phone companies to slash the amounts people pay for downloading data while abroad.

This comes after similar moves to end higher roaming costs for voice calls and should make post-travel bill shock a thing of the past.

Monique Goyens – Director General of the European Consumers’ Organisation BEUC said: “The biggest difficulty with roaming is the too high prices of roaming and then the lack of information because you are not necessarily aware when you play with your smartphone that you are being charged so high prices when you transfer data.”

The increasing use of smartphones – which connect to the internet – means more people have been hit with huge roaming charges

The European Commission is expected to cap rates at 90 euro cents a megabyte falling to 50 cents by 2014.

The phone companies have challenged EU roaming regulations in the European Court of Justice but lost.

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