Roaming charges set for the chop from June 2017, and prices capped from next April

Until roaming ends altogether, the additional charge for using a mobile in another European country will be capped from May 1, 2016.

This will mean prices normally paid for calls, text messages, downloads and internet use in the phone-holder's own country will only attract a nominal additional fee for the privilege of using their network abroad.

It is fairly frequent for travellers to return home and get a shock when their bill arrives and they find their typical monthly costs have gone off the stratosphere, sometimes multiplying tenfold.

In a recent incident reported by a consumer protection group in the northern Spanish region of Navarra, a local woman contracted a Europe-wide package before going away to avoid having to limit phone use for fear of inflated costs – and returned to find a bill running into literally thousands of euros.

The consumer group fought her case, and the bill was dropped to €255 for the month in question after the mobile network admitted they had not told the customer the package did not apply in Andorra.

Once April is out, roaming charges will be capped at an extra five cents per minute for calls or per megabyte of data downloaded, and two cents per text message, potentially cutting bills for mobile use abroad by three-quarters.

Another year and two months later will see roaming abolished completely.

The few MEPs who voted against axing roaming costs said they would lead to major losses for network operators, who would respond by putting prices up across the board even for domestic use.

British politicians in favour of the UK remaining as part of the European Union stressed abolishing roaming charges was yet another benefit which would be lost in the event of a 'Brexit'.

These extra costs will only cease for cross-border travel within the European Union, however – outside the 28 member States, or beyond the continent, non-domestic mobile use will continue to attract inflated prices.

At least one Spanish network operator advises its customers to contact them and deactivate their service until they return, and just buy pre-pay phone cards or a cheap pay-as-you-go SIM in their destination country.