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29th Apr 2016

Using your phone in other EU countries is going to be a lot cheaper from this weekend

Roaming charges are finally getting a flat rate.

Conor Heneghan

Turning off your mobile data while abroad will soon be a thing of the past.

There are few things more annoying than checking your phone bill after returning from a trip abroad and realising the exorbitant cost of making phone calls, texting or accessing the internet in another country.

Not before time, that’s all going to change in EU countries, with roaming charges set to be drastically reduced from this weekend before being abolished completely in June of next year.

Plans to reduce and abolish roaming charges have been in the works for quite some time and come 15 June 2017, consumers will pay the same price for calls, texts and mobile data wherever they are travelling in the EU.

From April 30 onwards, consumers will only have to pay slightly extra when using their phone in another EU country, with additional charges of €0.05 (4p in real money) per minute of call made, €0.02 (2p) per SMS sent, and €0.05 per MB of data (all excluding VAT) until those charges are abolished next June.

Prepared to be extra jealous when the texts and pictures come flying in from mates lucky enough to be at the Euros in the summer.

Topics:

Mobile Phone