I would say this is the moment we all have waited for, both as industry people, and as customers of mobile operators. The European Parliament has approved new price caps for mobile network roaming within the EU, including voice, data/internet and SMS messaging.

From 1st of July 2009 - the cost of sending an SMS while abroad is capped at EUR 0.11, while from that date wholesale data roaming charges are capped at EUR 1 per MB (which will drop to EUR 0.80 in July 2010 and EUR 0.50 in July 2011). Maximum per-minute voice call roaming charges will also fall: to EUR 0.43 for outgoing and EUR0.19 for incoming calls whilst abroad on 1 July 2009; to EUR 0.39 and EUR 0.15 respectively in July 2010; and to EUR 0.35 and EUR 0.11 respectively in July 2011 (compared to current roaming caps of EUR 0.46/EUR 0.22 on calls made/received).

All prices exclude VAT. Other measures approved include compulsory per-second billing for the entire duration of calls received whilst abroad, and after the first 30 seconds for outgoing calls.

The new rules also require mobile phone operators to provide clearer information on the cost of surfing the net and downloading data on a mobile phone when abroad. Users will receive a reminder when they have spent €50 (currently £44) using these services abroad.

What can we say - thank you, EU.