EU formally adopts caps on cross-border mobile roaming rates
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The European Union on Monday formally adopted rules slashing the cost of cross border mobile phone calls in the 27-nation bloc, paving the way for their application in the coming months.
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EU ministers agree a draft deal on tearing down barriers to cross-border provision of services.
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Plans to limit mobile phone call costs for consumers who travel abroad within Europe are attacked by the industry.
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Roaming rates in the EU are set to drop as the bloc agreed to move toward placing caps on what carriers can charge to traveling consumers, despite the protests of the wireless industry.
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EU governments agreed to cut the cost of using mobile phones abroad Thursday, paving the way for a cap on roaming fees later this summer.
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Mobile phones are about to become the simplest and quickest way to transfer money across borders, under a deal announced yesterday by Western Union and GSM Association, the main mobile phone operators' body.
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European Union ministers endorsed a plan to make permanent joint patrols that pick up migrants on the high seas Thursday, moving to end internal divisions over dealing with a surge of illegal immigration from Africa.
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The amount consumers are charged for making mobile calls while abroad is to be investigated by EU regulators.
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Tele2  said on Monday it  signed a roaming agreement for access to T-Mobile's mobile  network in Croatia.
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Investor's Business Daily - Investors in European telecom stocks have worried about rumors the EU soon would cap roaming charges on cell phone calls, hurting profits. That is until new rumors surfaced about possible mergers.
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European telecom regulator issues proposals that would let passengers use their handsets on European flights.
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LONDON -- Cell phone giant Vodafone Group PLC, which has spent years struggling to recoup billions spent on 3G licences, finally launched the cutting-edge service Wednesday in much of Europe and introduced or beefed up its operation in a dozen other
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Agreement creates instant access to 20,000 wireless hotspots in 11 countries.
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(InfoWorld) - The European Commission is harmonizing radio frequency bands across the European Union in order to spur use of a wide range of wireless devices such as wireless computer keyboards, headphones and garage door openers, it said Thursday. Frequency bands will soon be harmonized throughout the E.U. making life simpler, as anyone in Europe will be able to use the same short-range wireless product anywhere in the E.U. and manufacturers need only make one product for the whole internal market, the Commission said in a statement. The Commission hopes the move will decrease the price of wireless devices. A parallel move aims to harmonize frequencies for RFID (radio frequency identification) devices too. These electronic tags are increasingly used in businesses such as retail and logistics, tracking of goods and persons, security and alarm systems. "From garage door openers to baby monitors, alarms and wireless medical implants, short range devices affect us all, from the very young to the very old," said Viviane Reding, the European Commissioner for the information society. "That's why these Commission decisions will help create a single market for wireless devices, stimulate their uptake, boost industry in this vital sector and provide benefits to all Europeans." Short-range wireless devices are often portable mass market products can be operated without a licence in all member states. Once the radio frequencies are harmonized, consumers will not have to check whether specific equipment can be used in each member state, the Commission said, claiming that this will spur demand, reduce production costs for manufacturers and encourage new innovative devices and applications. A recent Commission study estimated the value of the market for these devices to be â¬25 billion ($33 billion) by 2009. The retail sector is likely to be the main first user to increase the efficiency in the flow of goods and storage by using RFID technology. The Commission believes the value of RFID services and equipment market in the E.U.'s 15 core members will reach â¬4 billion by 2010. For more information on the E.U.'s radio spectrum policy go to this page. The two decisions on harmonization of the radio spectrum use by short-range devices and for RFID devices in the ultra high frequency (UHF) band can be found here. A study on legal, economic and technical aspects of 'collective use' of spectrum in the European Community (2006) can be found here.
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European Union ministers adopted on  Thursday rules that will slash the price of making cell phone  calls abroad in the 27-member bloc, after a year of wrangling  and heated debate, the EU&#39;s German presidency said.
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EU telecoms ministers back rules that cut the charges for using mobile phones abroad.
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(InfoWorld) - The European Union's 27 governments gave the final OK Thursday to a law that will slash the cost of using a mobile phone abroad by around 70 percent, the German government said. By the end of this month mobile phone operators will have to offer subscribers a capped rate for phoning or receiving calls while outside their own countries. In the first year, roaming tariffs will be capped at â¬0.49 ($0.66) a minute for making calls abroad and â¬0.24 for receiving them. It will fall to â¬0.46 and â¬0.22 in the second year and â¬0.43 and â¬0.19 in the third, respectively. A rear-guard action by the U.K. in defense of mobile phone operators petered out and British Industry Minister Margaret Hodge was convinced to support theÂ compromise packageÂ put forward by the European Parliament. Mobile phone operators haveÂ lobbied hard to avert the law, which they see as unnecessary and harmful to competition. German Economy Minister Michael Glos was chairing the meeting because Germany currently holds the six-month rotating presidency of the EU. He will announce the agreement reached Thursday morning at a press conference at 3 p.m. CET (1 p.m. GMT). Â