Spain, Portugal vow to kill off roaming fees

The European Union has been trying to put a tight lid on roaming charges between its member nations for some time (just imagine if you paid roaming fees on interstate travel, Americans!), but it's been slow going -- though there are new per-minute caps in place this year, the fact that the concept of roaming exists at all, particularly when only a handful of companies control all of Europe's wireless landscape, is a little crazy. Well, Europeans, we might recommend using your friends in Spain and Portugal as shining examples of how you can live in a roaming-free future, because the friendly neighbors have agreed in principle to eliminate roaming charges as part of a broader plan to improve Spanish-Portuguese trade. Details have yet to be hammered out -- and therefore, affected carriers aren't yet commenting -- but if this works well, we can only hope the love will spread Europe-wide on the double.