The Special Eurobarometer on roaming in 2010 reveals that about three out of four Europeans using a mobile phone continue to limit their mobile voice calls abroad concerned about the costs. The study also indicates that on average 19 percent of Europeans do not even use their mobile phones abroad, a practice that is led by Portugal and Bulgaria with 32 percent, followed by Hungary (31 percent) and Germany (26 percent).
According to the Eurobarometer, the Portuguese are also the Europeans who travelled less in the last five years, with a total of 72 per cent of responses, exceeded only by Greece (77 percent) and Bulgaria (82 percent). The average for the 27 Member States (MS) of the European Union (EU) is 52 percent. These values are somehow related to a decrease of 13 per cent in the number of trips between 2006 and 2010. However, the total volume of incoming calls and text messages sent by EU citizens when travelling in other Member States increased during this period: travellers say they have made over 32 percent of calls, received over 31 per cent and sent over 43 per cent of text messages since 2006.
The results of this survey, as well as the public consultation on the future of the European Roaming Regulation, which closed on 11 February, will form a basis for revision of the current EU roaming rules, due by June 2011.
Further information:
- Special Eurobarometer 356 - Roaming in 2010 http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/activities/roaming/docs/survey2011_en.pdf
- Digital Agenda: Europeans use mobile phones more when travelling abroad, but still worry about costs, EU survey reveals http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/11/148&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en
