EU telecoms commissioner Viviane Reding said today she will propose new rules in October that could see the price of text messaging paid by consumers when abroad cut by up to two-thirds. The European Commission claims that the 2.5 billion text messages sent every year by roaming customers in the EU cost over ten times more than domestic short messaging services (SMS), with an average price of €0.29 per roamed text. According to Reuters, Reding said she will recommend the Commission propose new EU-wide rules in October, whilst Dow Jones Newswires notes that Reding aims to have them approved by the European Parliament and European governments by the end of the year. “A price cap between €0.11 and €0.15 per SMS would be appropriate,” said Daniel Pataki, chairman of the European Regulators Group, in a joint statement with Reding.

At the GSMA Mobile World Congress in February, Reding instructed operators to reduce their SMS roaming tariffs to €0.12 by July 1. At the time Reding warned she could look to extend previous voice roaming price regulation into the SMS and data space if she felt those targets had not been achieved. In addition, in today’s statement Reding said the cost of data roaming – such as surfing the Web using a mobile phone or laptop whilst abroad – is also too high and will be reviewed. Reuters notes that mobile phone industry officials have said the price of roamed data and texts is falling fast. Meanwhile, Tom Phillips, chief government and regulatory affairs officer at the GSMA, said in a statement: “The Commission’s proposals to single out yet another aspect of the mobile industry, and apply retail price regulation, threatens to choke growth and stifle competition.”