We mentioned back in March that the European Commission was investigating high roaming charges. After increasing pressure from the Commission, both Vodafone and T-Mobile reduced the cost of roaming for customers travelling abroad.

T-Mobile said Monday that it would launch a new service in June which would charge British subscribers travelling to 29 European countries, Canada and the United States a flat rate of 55 pence (80 euro cents, 1.025 dollars) per minute to make and receive calls.

Vodafone earlier revealed that within the next year it would slash the average call charge for a European customer when travelling within the EU to below 0.55 euro cents per minute, compared to more than 0.90 euro cents per minute currently.

According to Vodafone, that would benefit more than 30 million Vodafone customers who regularly travelled within the EU each year.

Vodafone also said in its company statement that it would cut wholesale charges for competing mobile operators within the EU, charging no more than 45 euro cents per minute from October 2006.

As a somewhat European traveller I'm not usually adversely affected by roaming charges, however the posted cost of such charges is also a disincentive for me to actually use my mobile whilst travelling.