EU states, lawmakers strike deal on mobile roaming rates
Afp, Brussels
EU governments and the European Parliament struck a deal on Tuesday to force mobile phone operators to reduce charges for calls from abroad, officials said on Tuesday. A diplomat said that under the agreement rates for calls made while in other EU countries would be capped in the first year of application at 49 euro cents a minute while receiving calls could cost no more than 24 cents. The ceiling would come down even lower in the second year, falling to 46 and 22 cents and then 43 and 19 cents in the third year. The European Commission drew up the plans to regulate roaming rates last year after it found evidence of huge variations between operators' prices, with some roaming calls costing up to six times those of local mobile calls. The package has the industry, which argues that fierce competition has already driven down prices, up in arms and it has been lobbying hard to get the plans watered down.
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