European roaming caps finalized for July 1 enforcement

The EU's latest proposal to cap roaming costs among its member nations on a tiered multi-year plan passed with flying colors before Parliament this week, meaning the deal goes into law effective July 1. There's a lot of push-back on this one from the GSMA -- makes sense, considering they represent carriers -- and concern that affected carriers will respond by simply raising domestic rates to counterbalance the lost revenue, but ultimately, it seems the powers that be are rolling the bones in the hopes that this works out in consumers' best interests. Telecoms commish Viviane Reding says roaming texts could drop in cost by a solid 60 percent, so yeah, we'd say that's a win.