European Union lawmakers backed legislation Wednesday that will allow people to chat on their cellphones without having to worry about costly roaming fees, even when calling Paris from Prague.

The legislators supported new price caps for roaming cellphone charges, saying service providers were unfairly gouging consumers with excessive fees. The measure, once approved by the EU telecommunications ministers in June, is expected to become binding on June 29.

'This is putting an end to the saga of excessive roaming charges." —Vivian Redding, EU Telecommunications Commissioner

Under the new legislation, phone companies will have to offer standard fees when they're "roaming" — making calls in different coverage areas and countries.

"This is putting an end to the saga of excessive roaming charges," said EU Telecommunications Commissioner Viviane Redding before the parliament vote. "The regulation will protect the vast majority of ordinary customers who up to now have been heavily overcharged when travelling abroad."

In Canada, where 66.8 per cent of households have at least one cellphone, some industry observers have said the country's service providers should overhaul their pricing structures. A study released in March suggested Canadians pay the highest cellphone fees compared to all other developed countries.

The report by the Seaboard Group, a Canadian research and consulting company, said that the average cellphone bill in Canada was the highest of the 30 countries in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

Toronto-based Rogers Wireless, Canada's largest wireless carrier, charges users $1.70 per minute to make calls from the United States back to Canada. A person visiting the U.S. would pay $1.20 per minute to receive calls from Canada.

A study conducted by the Seaboard Group suggested Canadians pay the highest cellphone fees compared to all other developed countries.
(CBC)

By comparison, the new EU legislation will allow consumers to keep their existing plan or opt into a new program that caps the retail roaming fees at 0.49 euros ($0.72 Cdn) per minute for placing a call when abroad and 0.24 euros ($0.35 Cdn) per minute when receiving a call.

For people in some regions of Europe, this represents a price drop of as much as 70 per cent.

Users will also have to cover value added taxes (VAT).

Further price drops will be introduced in the second and third years after the legislation comes into effect.

GSM Association opposes price caps

The GSM Association, which represents 700 cellphone service providers across 218 countries, called the legislation unnecessary, saying that the new regulations would harm market innovation.

The industry group noted that roaming fees have been steadily declining, with current prices 29 per cent lower on average than in 2005.

The group also said that different plans offer the consumer savings based on cellphone usage.

"The decline in the average price reflects the popularity of a range of innovative tariff plans developed by mobile operators to appeal to a wide variety of customers," the group said in a statement.

"Most of these plans offer volume discounts that are better value for many customers than the rigid price cap on each minute of a roaming call envisaged in the regulation proposed by the EU."

With files from the Associated Press