European Commission

Brussels- An EU regulation in place since the summer has
slashed by more than half the cost of making or receiving mobile
phone calls for customers travelling to other EU member states,
officials said Thursday.
A study carried out on behalf of the bloc's executive arm, the
European Commission (EC), found that virtually all mobile phone
operators had complied with the directive by agreeing to introduce a
cheaper "Eurotariff" across the 27-member bloc as of July 30.

The Eurotariff ceiling for so-called "roaming" charges, excluding
VAT, is 0.49 euros per minute for making a call and 0.24 euros for
receiving one.

In 2006, the average roaming price was 1.10 euros and 0.58 euros
respectively, meaning the Eurotariff has slashed costs by about 60
per cent, said Viviane Reding, the EC's telecoms commissioner.

"The Eurotariff is now the standard price offer for roaming in the
EU, as had been the intention of the European legislator," Reding
said.

The Eurotariff is now estimated to be available to more than 400
million customers across the EU.

The cheapest roaming prices were found to be on offer by an
operator in the Netherlands, which charges just 0.20 euros per minute
for making or receiving a call while travelling in another EU state.

Roaming prices are also significantly lower than the Eurotariff
ceilings in Britain, Ireland, Belgium and Austria, the study found.

Experts said the transition to the new tariff had gone ahead
smoothly and that they had found no evidence of operators raising
domestic prices in order to offset the lower roaming charges.

As of September 30, Eurotariff customers should receive an SMS
informing them about roaming prices once they arrive in another EU
country.

The Eurotariff is to be further reduced by several eurocents in
2008 and 2009.