Telefonica has launched a pan-European data roaming tariff offering smartphone subscribers to its European networks 25MB of data usage for EUR2 a day.

The Spanish-owned operator group said the EU-wide tariff is designed to protect its customers from “bill shock” and is significantly below the new price caps announced by the European Union last week.

The Pan-European tariff launched in Germany in May and will be available this summer to Telefonica’s O2 and Movistar customers in Spain, UK, Ireland, Czech Republic and Slovakia. It will be applicable for roaming across all 27 EU member states.

According to Telefonica, the 25MB limit translates to 250 visits to “essential websites” and up to 500 emails, excluding attachments. Customers exceeding 25MB will be immediately notified.

The EU ruled last week that a mobile data cap will be set at EUR0.70 per megabyte from this summer and will then fall in stages to EUR0.45 in 2013 and then EUR0.20 on 1 July 2014.  

“On a per megabyte basis, Telefónica's European tariff works out considerably cheaper than the EU?s regulated rate,” said the operator in a statement.