EU deal ends extortionate mobile phone roaming charges

THE European Union has finalised a deal to cap wholesale charges telephone operators pay each other when their customers use mobile phones abroad.

The caps were the final part of agreements needed to abolish retail roaming charges, which will take effect in June 2017.

Charges for data, arguably the essential part of a mobile phone in this day and age, will be capped at €7.70 per gigabyte from June 2017, going down to €2.50 per gigabyte in 2022.

Caps for making calls will drop down to 32 cents per minute and sending text messages abroad will cost one cent per text.

Once approved by the full European Parliament, the caps will be reviewed every two years.