EU roaming cap comes into force

European travellers using mobile devices while away from home will have to explicitly agree to charges beyond €50 a month for downloading data, under European Union rules that will come into force July 1.

Designed to prevent "bill shock", when users unwittingly run up astronomical roaming bills while overseas, the measure is the latest Brussels initiative to regulate the price of foreign mobile phone use. By default, travellers within the EU will have to be notified when their bill reaches €40 for data usage in any given month, and will be cut off at €50 unless they agree to further charges. The July 1 implementation coincides with a further lowering of voice roaming tariffs, which have been regulated by Brussels since 2007. It will cost a maximum of 39c to make calls and 15c a minute to receive calls, both down 4c. Unlike previous roaming regulations, operators have not put up much resistance to the measures, at least publicly.