As many Europeans get ready to go on holiday abroad, new horror stories about the cost of mobile data roaming are waiting around the corner. But things are starting to change.

Viviane Reding, Europe's telecommunications commissioner, has set Tuesday as the industry deadline to bring down data roaming and SMS (Short Message Service) prices.

Reding has previously made operators lower their tariffs on mobile phone calls, and, during a speech at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in February, challenged them to also bring down pricing on data traffic and messaging.

After the Tuesday deadline passes, the Commission will analyze data supplied by mobile operators, as well as the results of a public consultation that ends on Wednesday, according to spokesman Martin Selmayr.

"On this basis, Commissioner Reding plans to announce whether or not to regulate in the second half of July," said Selmayr.

But things have already started to improve, the combination of media hype around the huge cost of roaming, and the threat of regulation is acting as an impetus for change, according to Angela Stainthorpe, analyst at Informa Telecoms and Media.

Since February, E-Plus Germany, Orange, SFR, T-Mobile UK, Telecom Italia, Telefónica, Telenor, TeliaSonera, Vodafone and Wind Italy have announced lower pricing.

T-Mobile UK will, for example, charge £1.50 S$3) per megabyte from Tuesday, compared to £7.50, which is what it bills customers today. Several operators are also starting to offer data bundles. Orange has announced Travel Data Daily, which will cost between €12 ($19) and €15 for 50M bytes of daily Internet access within the European Union.

This means surfing abroad will become quite a bit cheaper, but it is still very expensive compared to what it costs to wirelessly access the Internet locally in most countries or to use Wi-Fi hot spots.

"Users still have to be careful, which is always the case when you pay for usage. In some cases there is also a restriction on which networks you can use, which makes it a bit more complicated," said Stainthorpe.

But pricing is only part of the problem: the reason for all the horror stories is a lack of customer understanding for what it costs to surf the Web while on a business trip abroad. To counteract that, there is a need for greater transparency, according to David Pringle, spokesman at GSM Association.

The IDG News Service is a Network World affiliate.