Call Home? It’s Getting Cheaper In Europe

It doesn’t matter where you live, everyone hates those huge roaming charges on their cell phone bills. But quite soon Europeans will find the bite won’t hurt quite as much.   Roamingcharges occur when you make calls from outside your home area. Currently it can cost British users up to $2 a minute to make a call from Spain, for instance, and only a little less to receive one.  But European Parliament lawmakers have voted to put a cap on roaming charges, which will gradually see charges fall by up to 75%. Although membergovernments of the 27-member European Union still have to ratify the proposals, that’s seen as a formality.   Under the new rules, new charges will be phased in over three years, withfirst year caps of 66 cents for making a call while abroad and 32 cents for receiving one. By the third year that will have fallen to 22 and 10 cents, respectively.   The move, whichsurprisingly only lasts for three years, meaning that phone companies could in theory raise their rates afterwards, has been long anticipated, and some companies have already cut their roaming rates.But the industry isn’t happy at the new rules.   In a statement, the GSM Association, the industry body of mobile phone operators,condemned the ruling, stating that it might cause harm to consumers and curb competition.   “The regulation in unnecessary because operators are delivering increasingly good value toconsumers on roaming service, the Association said, claiming that the cost of making and receiving calls in Europe is already 29% lower than it was in 2005.   The new rules, which will affectsome 150 million people, are unlikely to take effect before July or August, so thousands of holidaymakers will still find themselves paying heavily for the privilege of checking everything’sfine at home. The rates for text messages will not be changed at all.