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EU to cap European SMS roaming rates at 11 Euro cents

While the United States and Canada are still pondering what to do (if anything) about the rising cost of text messaging, it looks like the European Union has finally decided to put its rather large foot down and set a cap on all texts sent within Europe. According to Reuters, the new maximum rate will be 11 Euro cents, which is quite the bargain considering that, as Mobile Burn points out, a German customer sending a text from Spain now has to pay a hefty 41 Euro cents for the privilege. Under the same European Commission proposal, phone calls will also have to be billed by the second, and competition for accessing the internet abroad will also apparently be "increased," although any further specifics on that point are a bit light at the moment. There's also no word exact word as to when the new rules will go into effect, but previous reports had said it could happen as soon as January.

[Via Mobile Burn]