Current State of Data Roaming Charges in the EU

This September the EU mandated a maximum price wireless network operators could charge each other for GPRS and UMTS data roaming. The cap imposed was one euro per megabyte and the hope was that as a result, end user prices would fall as well. So has it happened yet?

Taking my German prepaid SIM from MVNO Congstar to France recently, I was greeted with an SMS message informing me that data roaming charges were 99 cents per 50 kb and in addition a daily service charge of 49 cents would apply. That's a whoppin 20 euros per megabyte! Orange France is not much cheaper. Their prepaid roaming charges for data in Belgium is 9 cents per 10 kb or 9 euros per megabyte.

Well, Ms. Redding, I guess the plan hasn't quite worked so far and I still have to rely on local SIM cards.