It's not a guarantee yet, but Europeans may soon enjoy capped roaming charges. The cap will slash prices for most European consumers.
This can be viewed as an achievement for European regulators. Germany was the toughest opponent of the cap, favoring market pricing for wireless providers. Interestingly enough, Germany represented the national governments of the member states of the EU. Now all European roaming clients need to do now is to wait for the European Telecom Ministers to sign the agreement. A year on the price caps will be in effect. Which means?
- Outgoing roaming charges: originally Euro .49 will go down to Euro.46 by next year and dropping to Euro .43 a year later.
- Incoming roaming charges: originally Euro .26, drop to Euro .24 then to Euro .19.
- Wholesale roaming prices: originally Euro .30, will drop to Euro .28, then Euro .26 the following year
Providers are forced to offer the new prices to old customers. New customers will automatically get the new prices.