Mobile Browsing Cap Now in Effect in EU
Mar 8, 2010
The European Commission pressed networks into slashing roaming charges, but until now the cost of online surfing had remained unchanged.
Customers have until July 1 to set a maximum monthly cost with their network, and those who do not will by default have a US$68 limit set.
Networks will send a warning when customers use up 80 per cent of their allotment. At the limit, they will be cut off.
The European Commission has pressed networks into slashing roaming charges, leading to a 35 per cent drop in the average cell phone bill to about US$27 a month, according to EU data.
But until now the cost of online surfing had remained unchanged. The EU office noted that German traveler was billed more than US$62,000 after watching a TV show in 2009 while roaming online in France, and a British student was charged more than US$12,000 for a month's roaming while studying abroad.
By setting a monthly Internet limit, the European Commission hopes that "the tendency for operators will be to bring the price of surfing the Web down," EU spokesman Jonathan Todd said.
Neelie Kroes, the new EU digital issues commissioner, called the new measure a step in "building customers' confidence to surf the Internet when traveling in Europe."
Network operators can now charge each other no more than 1euro per megabyte for downloading. National telecoms regulators are responsible for enforcing the rules with mobile phone operators, and the EU commission will report on the issue by June 2011.
