EU telecoms chief Viviane Reding is making good on her threats. On Thursday, Reding told EU telecoms ministers in a meeting in Luxembourg that European operators have until the start of July to reduce the price of texting and data roaming abroad, before she imposes a cap on them herself, Reuters reports. Reding has been eyeing the prices ever since her victory in early 2007 clamping down on high international roaming charges. Ministers from France and Italy said they would back the proposed cuts, while the Belgian minister said he was in favor of caps for texting.

Capping the cost of mobile data roaming was a less popular idea, as telecoms firms have argued—and some ministers agree—that the market is still a nascent one that needs closer examination before price cuts are mandated.

Operator industry group, the GSM Association, said that the EU’s mobile data market grew 40 percent to 7 billion euros in 2007, on the back of a 20 billion euro investment from operators. A study it commissioned from AT Kearney found that international data roaming fell by 25 percent in the year to April 2008 in the EU while traffic grew 75 percent over the same period. AT Kearney also estimates that the average price of text messaging roaming services fell 18 percent in the year to April 2008 (release).

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