Mobile phone companies will be forced to cap the amount they charge for overseas data roaming at £0.80 (€0.90) per megabyte from next July under EU proposals announced today.

In another good piece of news for travellers and holidaymakers, customers will also be able to switch to other providers for their overseas roaming, leading to greater competition and potentially even lower charges, according to EU telecoms commissioner Neelie Kroes.

Kroes also announced that the cap on the cost to consumers of overseas calls and texts, introduced last week, will be lowered in each of the following three years. From July 2012 prices will drop for calls made from phones across Europe to £0.28 (€0.32) a minute; £0.25 (€0.28) from July 2013; and £0.21 (€0.24) from July 2014.

But consumer groups have warned that the costs to networks of introducing the first ever cap on data roaming could be passed on to customers through price rises elsewhere. They also argue that the cap should be introduced immediately rather than in a year's time, and that €0.90 per megabyte is still too high – though the EU has announced further plans for this to be reduced to €0.50 from July 2014.