CyTA and Areeba cut roaming charges

New rules aimed at slashing the price of mobile phone calls made abroad in the European Union come into effect this week, with EU regulators promising to name and shame non-compliant companies.

Mobile operators must offer EU subscribers tariffs of no more than 49 euro cents a minute for cross-border calls within the 27-nation bloc, while receiving a call should cost no more than 24 euro cents.

Mobile phone operators had until midnight Monday to offer the new so-called roaming rates and by September 1 must bring them into effect whether customers request them or not.

State-owned CyTA and alternative private operator Areeba/MTN Cyprus announced they would reduce roaming charges in line with EU regulations.

CyTA announced that as of August 30, 2007 its new roaming rates within EU. Calls within an EU country other than Cyprus would cost CYP0.207 or EUR 0.3537 per minute including VAT, while overseas calls to other EU countries from outside Cyprus would be CYP0.329 or EUR 0.5621. The cost of receiving calls while abroad in the EU would be CYP0.145 or EUR 0.2477 per minute including VAT.

Areeba/MTN Cyprus rates of Pay Monthly and Pay As You Talk subscribers for all outgoing calls to European member states would be charged at CYP0.28 or EUR 0.49 per minute effective 30 August 2007.This applies to calls made to fixed and mobile networks within the visited country, calls to Cyprus and calls to other networks within the EU. All incoming calls from an EU member state will be charged at CYP 0.14 or EUR 0.24 per minute.The Areeba charges do not include VAT.
The European Commission had proposed a reduction in mobile roaming charges within the EU by up to 70 percent. The Commission said that despite repeated calls to mobile operators, using mobile phones in other EU countries remained on average four times more expensive than domestic mobile phone calls – up to 12 euros for a four-minute call.