No roaming data price cuts - Brussels

While consumers may be rejoicing at the prospect of smaller roaming bills as a result of legislation making its way through the European parliament, SMS and other data charges will remain as high as ever.

In a key vote in the European parliament, MEPs on the Industry Committee have agreed to exclude data from the proposed roaming caps which will limit how much operators can charge each other - and their customers - to make calls from abroad.

The Industry Committee gave the thumbs up to a retail price cap of €0.40 per minute for calls made to countries inside the EU, which is due to be implemented in the summer, but SMS and MMS costs will not be affected. The MEPs have, however, asked that the European Commission reviews wholesale and retail costs with a view to making recommendations on whether these costs should be legislated on in future.

But it's not all bad news for travellers on the data front. As well as the new 'Euro tariff' - the standard roaming rate operators will have to offer or beat - the parliament has mandated that network operators offer a fair use, all-inclusive monthly flat-rate package that will include MMS and SMS messages - although no pricing caps have been set on this.

Some operators have already sought to beat Brussels' legislation by bringing in flat-rate data plans early.

Vodafone launched an all-you-can-eat package at the CeBIT trade show last month, charging customers €12 per day for data. Hutchison-owned 3 also announced a cut in data roaming charges - doing away with all extra costs for customers using data on any 3 network abroad.