diff --git a/.travis.yml b/.travis.yml
index dc740465e8..53537d5f18 100644
--- a/.travis.yml
+++ b/.travis.yml
@@ -8,4 +8,5 @@ php:
 before_script:
     - curl -s http://getcomposer.org/installer | php
     - COMPOSER_ROOT_VERSION=dev-master php composer.phar --dev install
-    - php src/Symfony/Component/Locale/Resources/data/build-data.php
\ No newline at end of file
+    - php src/Symfony/Component/Locale/Resources/data/build-data.php
+    - export USE_INTL_ICU_DATA_VERSION=1
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/src/Symfony/Component/Locale/Locale.php b/src/Symfony/Component/Locale/Locale.php
index c1d00e8243..577f33fcd5 100644
--- a/src/Symfony/Component/Locale/Locale.php
+++ b/src/Symfony/Component/Locale/Locale.php
@@ -13,6 +13,11 @@ namespace Symfony\Component\Locale;
 
 class Locale extends \Locale
 {
+    /**
+     * The ICU data version that ships with Symfony
+     */
+    const ICU_DATA_VERSION = '49';
+
     /**
      * Caches the countries in different locales
      * @var array
@@ -43,7 +48,7 @@ class Locale extends \Locale
     public static function getDisplayCountries($locale)
     {
         if (!isset(self::$countries[$locale])) {
-            $bundle = \ResourceBundle::create($locale, self::getDataDirectory().'/region');
+            $bundle = \ResourceBundle::create($locale, self::getIcuDataDirectory().'/region');
 
             if (null === $bundle) {
                 throw new \RuntimeException(sprintf('The country resource bundle could not be loaded for locale "%s"', $locale));
@@ -98,7 +103,7 @@ class Locale extends \Locale
     public static function getDisplayLanguages($locale)
     {
         if (!isset(self::$languages[$locale])) {
-            $bundle = \ResourceBundle::create($locale, self::getDataDirectory().'/lang');
+            $bundle = \ResourceBundle::create($locale, self::getIcuDataDirectory().'/lang');
 
             if (null === $bundle) {
                 throw new \RuntimeException(sprintf('The language resource bundle could not be loaded for locale "%s"', $locale));
@@ -149,7 +154,7 @@ class Locale extends \Locale
     public static function getDisplayLocales($locale)
     {
         if (!isset(self::$locales[$locale])) {
-            $bundle = \ResourceBundle::create($locale, self::getDataDirectory().'/names');
+            $bundle = \ResourceBundle::create($locale, self::getIcuDataDirectory().'/names');
 
             if (null === $bundle) {
                 throw new \RuntimeException(sprintf('The locale resource bundle could not be loaded for locale "%s"', $locale));
@@ -188,11 +193,11 @@ class Locale extends \Locale
     }
 
     /**
-     * Returns the ICU version
+     * Returns the ICU version as defined by the intl extension
      *
      * @return string|null The ICU version
      */
-    public static function getIcuVersion()
+    public static function getIntlIcuVersion()
     {
         if (defined('INTL_ICU_VERSION')) {
             return INTL_ICU_VERSION;
@@ -213,11 +218,11 @@ class Locale extends \Locale
     }
 
     /**
-     * Returns the ICU Data version
+     * Returns the ICU Data version as defined by the intl extension
      *
      * @return string|null The ICU Data version
      */
-    public static function getIcuDataVersion()
+    public static function getIntlIcuDataVersion()
     {
         if (defined('INTL_ICU_DATA_VERSION')) {
             return INTL_ICU_DATA_VERSION;
@@ -237,26 +242,39 @@ class Locale extends \Locale
         return trim($matches[1]);
     }
 
-    public static function getDataVersion()
+    /**
+     * Returns the ICU data version that ships with Symfony. If the environment variable USE_INTL_ICU_DATA_VERSION is
+     * defined, it will try use the ICU data version as defined by the intl extension, if available.
+     *
+     * @return string The ICU data version that ships with Symfony
+     */
+    public static function getIcuDataVersion()
     {
         static $dataVersion;
 
         if (null === $dataVersion) {
-            $dataVersion = 'current';
+            $dataVersion = self::ICU_DATA_VERSION;
 
-            if (getenv('ICU_DATA_VERSION')) {
-                $dataVersion = getenv('ICU_DATA_VERSION');
-            } elseif (file_exists(__DIR__.'/../Resources/data/data-version.php')) {
-                $dataVersion = include __DIR__.'/../Resources/data/data-version.php';
+            if (getenv('USE_INTL_ICU_DATA_VERSION') && self::getIntlIcuVersion()) {
+                $dataVersion = self::getIntlIcuVersion();
+
+                preg_match('/^(?P<version>[0-9]\.[0-9]|[0-9]{2,})/', $dataVersion, $matches);
+
+                $dataVersion = $matches['version'];
             }
         }
 
         return $dataVersion;
     }
 
-    public static function getDataDirectory()
+    /**
+     * Returns the directory path of the ICU data that ships with Symfony
+     *
+     * @return string The path to the ICU data directory
+     */
+    public static function getIcuDataDirectory()
     {
-        return __DIR__.'/Resources/data/'.self::getDataVersion();
+        return __DIR__.'/Resources/data/'.self::getIcuDataVersion();
     }
 
     /**
diff --git a/src/Symfony/Component/Locale/Resources/data/UPDATE.txt b/src/Symfony/Component/Locale/Resources/data/UPDATE.txt
index aee00ef6cb..8d1d6c22ee 100644
--- a/src/Symfony/Component/Locale/Resources/data/UPDATE.txt
+++ b/src/Symfony/Component/Locale/Resources/data/UPDATE.txt
@@ -14,10 +14,8 @@ It is recommended to use the ICU binaries in the same version of the desired
 version to build the data files.
 
 You can use one of the versions available in the `icu.ini` file. To update to
-a newer version, just update the SVN URL for the desired release URL. To update
-to a major version, add a new version key, the SVN URL and update the
-`latest version` with the new version key. For each major ICU release, try to
-use the latest release tag available.
+a newer version, just update the SVN URL for the desired release URL. For each
+major ICU release, try to use the latest release tag available.
 
 The script requires `svn` (used to download the ICU data) and the `genrb` and
 `icu-config` ICU binaries.
diff --git a/src/Symfony/Component/Locale/Resources/data/build-data.php b/src/Symfony/Component/Locale/Resources/data/build-data.php
index 28c2ba2e6b..1fe0ca8766 100644
--- a/src/Symfony/Component/Locale/Resources/data/build-data.php
+++ b/src/Symfony/Component/Locale/Resources/data/build-data.php
@@ -164,17 +164,6 @@ function is_42_or_earlier($version)
     return version_compare($version, '4.4', '<');
 }
 
-function is_latest_version($version)
-{
-    $icu = parse_ini_file(__DIR__.DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR.'icu.ini');
-
-    if (!isset($icu[$version])) {
-        bailout('The version '.$version.' is not available in the icu.ini file.');
-    }
-
-    return $icu['latest version'] == $version;
-}
-
 function create_stub_datafile($locale, $target, $data)
 {
     $template = <<<TEMPLATE
@@ -291,7 +280,7 @@ if (!is_42_or_earlier($version)) {
 check_dir($source.DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR.'locales');
 
 // Convert the *.txt resource bundles to *.res files
-$target = is_latest_version($version) ? 'current' : $version;
+$target = $version;
 $target = __DIR__.DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR.$target;
 $currDir = $target.DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR.'curr';
 $langDir = $target.DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR.'lang';
@@ -636,20 +625,4 @@ create_stub_datafile($defaultLocale, $stubRegionDir, $countries);
 
 // Clean up
 clear_directory($currDir);
-rmdir($currDir);
-
-// Creates the data version file, used in CI environments
-$dataVersion = __DIR__.DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR.'data-version.php';
-
-if (!is_latest_version($version)) {
-    $data = <<<DATA_VERSION
-<?php
-
-return $version;
-
-DATA_VERSION;
-
-    file_put_contents($dataVersion, $data);
-} elseif (file_exists($dataVersion)) {
-    unlink($dataVersion);
-}
+rmdir($currDir);
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/src/Symfony/Component/Locale/Resources/data/icu.ini b/src/Symfony/Component/Locale/Resources/data/icu.ini
index 7a1e63ede0..8db4652b99 100644
--- a/src/Symfony/Component/Locale/Resources/data/icu.ini
+++ b/src/Symfony/Component/Locale/Resources/data/icu.ini
@@ -1,7 +1,3 @@
-; The latest ICU version
-; It must be one of the available ICU SVN URLs key below.
-latest version = 49
-
 ; ICU data source URLs
 ; We use always the latest release of a major version.
 4.0 = http://source.icu-project.org/repos/icu/icu/tags/release-4-0-1/source/data
diff --git a/src/Symfony/Component/Locale/Stub/StubLocale.php b/src/Symfony/Component/Locale/Stub/StubLocale.php
index 71712cc0e0..5c6d6a9dc0 100644
--- a/src/Symfony/Component/Locale/Stub/StubLocale.php
+++ b/src/Symfony/Component/Locale/Stub/StubLocale.php
@@ -498,7 +498,7 @@ class StubLocale
      */
     private static function getStubData($locale, $cacheVariable, $stubDataDir)
     {
-        $dataDirectory = Locale::getDataDirectory();
+        $dataDirectory = Locale::getIcuDataDirectory();
 
         if ('en' !== $locale) {
             throw new \InvalidArgumentException(sprintf('Only the \'en\' locale is supported. %s', NotImplementedException::INTL_INSTALL_MESSAGE));