Travellers to Europe will enjoy cheaper mobile calls under a Brussels agreement made yesterday – but it will come into effect only after most people have taken their summer holiday. The cost of making a roaming call (one made while abroad) will be capped at 49 eurocents (33p) per minute and an incoming call at 24 eurocents (16p) under regulations agreed at the European Parliament – a cut of up to 70 per cent on existing charges.

But last night the operators’ association gave warning that customers should brace themselves for price rises in domestic tariffs or other areas such as handsets as companies tried to claw back lost income.

Opponents of the price limits said that the poorest mobile users would end up subsidising international business travellers.

The timetable gives phone operators some breathing space to adapt and inform customers, meaning that holiday-makers in July and most of August will not be able to use the new “Eurotariff”.

Mobile users will be able to request the new rates during July, as soon as their phone operators formally notify them of the scheme.

The operators will then have one month to change their call rates. The new regime is expected to be announced formally by the EU on June 29.

All phone users currently paying more than the Eurotariff limit for roaming calls will automatically transfer to the new regime three months from this announcement, meaning that the new rates should become automatic on September 29.

Viviane Reding, the EU Tele-coms Commissioner, said that high mobile roaming costs were a barrier to the EU internal market. “They prevented people from freely travelling as they wanted because they punished you when you crossed borders. We are not fixing prices, we are fixing ceilings and under these ceilings there is ample room for manoeuvre.”

She added that, while texting and data messaging were not covered, she would target them if they did not also come down in price voluntarily.

By 2009, the limits will drop to 43 eurocents (29p) for making calls and 19 eurocents (13p) for receiving them. The regulation will then lapse, unless the EU decides to extend it.

The GSM Association, the mobile industry body, gave warning that the regulation could see mobile operators cutting costs in other areas.

A spokesman for the association said: “It will come down to the decision of the individual operator . . . Some will look to see how they can claw back lost revenues. They have a whole range of options, including not reducing domestic charges as much as they have done in the past, tinkering with handset subsidies or cutting investment.” Currently, he said, domestic charges were falling at about 5 per cent each year.

Karen Darby, of Simply-Switch.com , the price comparison service, also warned consumers about a possible fallout from the cuts.

She said: “While we support any action that leads to a better deal for the customer, we should brace ourselves for the fact that mobile operators will try to claw back some of their lost earnings through other channels.”

Vodafone said that it already offered a deal that worked out cheaper than the Eurotariff. Under its Passport tariff, users pay 75 eurocents (50p) to receive or make a call, then move on to their domestic rate. A spokesman said that customers would not be moved from this to the Eurotariff unless they requested it.

The Open Europe think-tank said: “Pushing down prices for international calls is likely to mean that mobile companies raise prices for domestic users, who are likely to be less well off than international travellers. It could end up creating a perverse situation where the poorest mobile phone customers using ‘pay as you go’ phones will start to pay more for their domestic calls than businessmen making international calls.”

The numbers

Up to 20% of operators’ revenue comes from calls made from abroad Mobile companies sought to defend the charges by arguing that mobile calls were still cheaper than those from hotel phones 15% of people switch off their mobiles while abroad

Sources: Evalueserve, European Commission

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