Beginning Wednesday, European mobile phone users can cross national borders in Europe and know they won't be slammed with a huge cell phone bill when they return home. Roaming charges for cell phone and texting messages are dropping.

A new single tariff, in the works since 2007, covers all European Union countries and the charges for many consumers for some messages will plunge. Roamed text charges will drop from 28 European cents to 11 cents and roamed mobile calls will also drop, but not as much as text messages. Calls will drop from 46 cents to 43 cents. Sending a megabyte of data will cost 85 cents -- about one-half the previous data price.

"The roaming rip-off is now coming to an end," said EU telecommunications commissioner Viviane Reding, who lobbied hard for the lower prices. "Expect the new roaming rules to make it much cheaper to surf the web on your mobile while abroad in the EU." The EU pushed for the lowered charges to be effective before the summer holiday season when many Europeans move from country to country on vacations.

The price cuts were implemented in the face of opposition from the GSM Association, whose members dominate the wireless carrier industry in Europe. The GSM argued that prices for consumers were dropping anyway and the imposition of price ceilings was unnecessary.

Before the uniform price schedule, carriers in some countries charged twice as much as some carriers in other countries.

The new tariff is expected to be a boon for American students studying in Europe, who purchase phones and SIM cards in Europe. Previously, some were charged exorbitant prices when they travelled about Europe.

In June, television personality Adam Savage of the Discovery Channel's Mythbuster's program used Twitter to rail against $11,000 in roaming charges he racked up in Canada in just a few hours of Web surfing.

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