The new rules mandate that making roamed calls to another EU country cannot cost more than 0.43 per minute, and no more than 0.19 to receive a call.

"From today, all Europeans making calls or sending texts with their mobiles can experience the EU's single market without borders," said EU Telecoms Commissioner Viviane Reding, in a statement. "The roaming rip-off is now coming to an end."

In addition, outgoing roaming calls will now be charged by the second, after the first 30 seconds, rather than by the minute, and incoming calls will be charged by the second from the first second.

Business and "holiday" travelers will also be able to go online, download movies or send photos with their mobile device thanks to a cap of 1 per MB downloaded. These new measures are expected to cut roaming charges for EU consumers by another 60 percent, while at the same time increasing mobile phone use.

The EU also wants to make "bill shocks" a thing of the past by introducing a cut-off mechanism once the bill reaches 50, unless consumers opt for another cut-off limit. For example, there was a recent case in which a German citizen downloaded a TV show while roaming in France, and ended up being charged a whopping 46,000. Operators have until March 2010 to put this cut-off limit in place.

The European Parliament and Council have asked the European Commission to monitor data roaming charges and make an assessment in 2010 to determine if the roaming market is "finally becoming competitive," Reding said. At that point, the commission could propose more rules, if necessary, by the end of June 2011.