EU to propose caps on roamed texts, Web surfing

By Huw Jones

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The price of texting from one EU state to another would tumble nearly two-thirds to 11 euro cents ($0.16) under proposals from EU Telecoms Commissioner Viviane Reding, EU sources said on Wednesday.

Reding's long-awaited proposal is circulating among other EU Commissioners before they formally adopt it later this month or in early October.

The EU's 27 member states and the European Parliament must also approve the change, which builds on EU legislation which substantially cut fees using a mobile phone abroad.

Some 2.5 billion text messages are sent every year by roaming customers in the EU and cost about 10 times more than domestic short messages (SMS).

Roamed texts represented 97 percent pure revenue for operators, Reding said in July. A roamed text currently costs about 29 euro cents to send.

The proposal also extends by three years to 2013 caps which are already in place on roamed voice calls but will steepen the rate of decline, the sources said, quoting from the draft text.

The voice roaming law was one of the most popular policies ever to come out of Brussels.

The European Regulators Group, made up of national telecoms watchdogs from each member state, said recently that due to falls in wholesale connection prices, the current caps on roamed voice calls are about 8 euro cents per minute too high.  Continued...