The European Parliament voted on 22nd April to adopt amendments to telecoms roaming regulation designed to increase pricing tranparency for roaming data usage.
TARIFF NOTIFICATION
“From 1 July 2009 at the latest, an automatic message from the home provider shall inform the roaming customer that he is roaming and provide basic personalised tariff information on the charges applicable to the provision of regulated data roaming services to that roaming customer in the Member State concerned, except when the customer has notified his home provider that he does not require this information.
Such basic personalised tariff information shall be delivered to the roaming customer's mobile telephone or other device, for example by an SMS message, an email or a pop-up window on the computer , every time the roaming customer enters a Member State other than that of his home network and initiates for the first time a regulated data roaming service in that particular Member State. It shall be provided at the moment the roaming customer initiates a regulated data roaming service, free of charge, by an appropriate means adapted to facilitate its receipt and easy comprehension.“1
USAGE TRANSPARENCY & LIMIT MANAGEMENT
“By 1 March 2010 , each home provider shall give to all their roaming customers the opportunity to opt deliberately and free of charge for a facility which provides information on the accumulated consumption expressed in volume or in the currency in which the roaming customer is billed for regulated data roaming services and which guarantees that, without the customer's explicit consent, the accumulated expenditure for regulated data roaming services over a specified period of use does not exceed a specified financial limit.
To this end, the home provider shall make available one or more maximum financial limits for specified periods of use, provided that the customer is informed in advance of the corresponding volume amounts
. One of these limits (the default financial limit) shall be close to, but not exceeding 50 EUR of outstanding charges per monthly billing period (excluding VAT)...
...Each
home provider shall also ensure that an appropriate notification is sent to the roaming customer's mobile telephone or other device, for example by an SMS message, an email or a pop-up window on the computer, when the data roaming services have reached 80% of the agreed financial or volume limit . Customers shall have the right to require their operators to stop sending such notifications and shall have the right at any time and free of charge to require the home provider to provide the service again.
When this financial or volume limit would otherwise be exceeded
, a notification shall be sent to the roaming customer's mobile telephone or other device. This notification shall indicate the procedure to be followed if the customer wishes to continue provision of those services and the cost associated with each additional unit to be consumed. If the roaming customer does not respond as prompted in the notification received, the home provider shall immediately cease to provide and to charge the roaming customer for regulated data roaming services, unless and until the roaming customer requests the continued or renewed provision of those services.”.1
1 http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=TA&language=EN&reference=P6-TA-2009-0249