EU in draft deal on capping phone roaming prices

By Huw Jones

LONDON (Reuters) - The European Union reached a draft deal on Tuesday on slashing the price of texting from abroad and capping the wholesale cost of using a laptop to surf the Internet outside a home state, an EU diplomat said.

"The roaming deal is done," the diplomat said.

The deal brings in steeper price cuts than had been planned under a measure drafted by EU Telecoms Commissioner Viviane Reding, and brings forward their introduction by two months.

It widens the scope of an existing regulation that caps the price of roamed voice calls.

"Commissioner Reding left the meeting saying this is a victory for European consumers and for the European single telecoms market," her spokesman said.

EU regulators and the European Commission want to end "bill shock", when business travellers or holidaymakers return home to huge charges for checking emails or surfing the Web while away.

The law caps the price to consumers of roamed text messages and extends by three years to June 2012 current EU price limits on roamed voice calls.

The European Parliament and EU states struck a deal on the measure at a meeting in Strasbourg, France, and parliament will endorse the agreement next month.