Mobile Phones

Using a mobile phone abroad is to become cheaper across the EU after MEPs today backed plans to place caps on roaming charges.

3’s UK customers have made more than twice as many calls from 3 Like Home countries since international roaming charges were reduced in January. 3 Like Home lets customers use their existing talk and text bundles when visiting countries with 3 sister networks, and abolishes costs for receiving calls, slashing mobile bills for holidaymakers.

Commenting on the EU and members of the European Parliament reaching a preliminary deal on cutting mobile roaming charges, Rob Barnes, head of mobile phones at moneysupermarket.com, said:

Commenting on T-Mobile's first quarter financial results, Rob Barnes, head of mobiles at moneysupermarket.com, said: "The results indicate T-Mobile's current focus on higher spending customers.

Arguments have stalled a European Parliament vote on price caps for mobile roaming charges. After two days of negotiations, disagreement remains over the levels of the price caps as well as whether customers should automatically receive the new rates or have to actively sign up to them.

With the European Parliament vote on mobile roaming charges postponed by two weeks as the three voting EU governing bodies cannot agree on a compromise deal, Chris Frost, Mobile Phone Expert at independent price comparison and switching service uSwitch.com, comments:

3 today announces changes to its Pay As You Go tariff which will give customers great value and even greater flexibility, allowing them to reduce the price of their calls to friends and family on any network, at any time, to as little as 5p per minute. This makes it the cheapest any network any time call rate available from any UK mobile network on Pay As You Go.

With the EU having voted on plans to reduce the roaming costs of using a mobile phone abroad, SimplySwitch.com, the price comparison service, reveals over a staggering three quarters (77%) of British mobile owners, 33.9 million people, don’t know how much they currently pay for making or receiving calls abroad.

Ahead of today’s European Parliament vote on the European Commission’s proposal to cap mobile roaming charges, research from price comparison and switching service uSwitch.com reveals the true attitudes Brits abroad have on packing their mobile phones.

X-Series success sees launch of £5 unlimited mobile internet use for all - freedom to keep in touch by IM or e-mail away from your laptop or PC.

The 4.8 million UK holidaymakers jetting off to Europe and the USA this Easter could still mean big business for mobile phone providers, as roaming charges remain some of the highest in Europe.

Commenting on the announcement that Ofcom has ordered mobile phone firms to cut cross network connection charges, Rob Barnes, head of mobile phones at moneysupermarket.com said:

Chris Frost, Telecoms Expert at independent price comparison and switching service uSwitch.com, comments: “Ofcom today announced new charge controls limiting the amount that mobile network operators (MNOs) are able to charge other telephone companies for connecting calls on their mobile networks.

The cost of ringing home from Europe on a mobile phone could be capped at 30p a minute following an ‘agreement in principle’ by EU telecoms ministers.

3 welcomes the EU’s push to reduce wholesale costs to a more reasonable level as this will mean we can then pass these reductions onto our customers.