T-Mobile UK slashes Euro data roaming costs

Are you listening commissioner?

T-Mobile UK is the latest mobile operator to crack under the steely gaze of EC telecoms commissioner, Viviane Reding, and slash the price of data roaming and sending text messages in Europe.

T-Mobile has announced it is reducing roaming charges by 80 per cent for consumers from 1 July - cutting the cost of downloading a megabyte of data via a mobile, USB dongle or data card from £7.50 to £1.50. However even at £1.50 per MB, a mobile broadband user would still have to pay around £6 to download one MP3 from iTunes.

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The operator cut the cost of data roaming for business customers back in February.

The 1 July is the deadline Reding gave the mobile industry to voluntarily slash data roaming prices or risk regulation.

Reding also said she wants the cost of sending a text message in the EU to be brought down to the same price as sending a domestic text, and asked operators to improve the clarity of pricing for customers so they do not receive 'shock bills' which are far higher than expected.

T-Mobile said it is cutting the cost of sending a text in Europe from 40p to 25p, a reduction of 38 per cent - although this will not come into effect until 30 August.

The operator added it will also be introducing tariff options called 'Euro Holiday Boosters' which it says will enable pay monthly and pay-as-you-go customers to control the use of their voice minutes and text allowances and the costs of roaming.

Last month rival operator Orange announced data roaming price cuts. And earlier this year O2 also announced cuts.

Whether operators' measures will be enough to impress Reding remains to be seen. According to a report in The Guardian, the commissioner is being urged by all of the EU's 27 national regulators to intervene and also by several governments.