BARCELONA, Feb 11: The European Union set mobile phone companies a July deadline on Monday to cut their roaming charges for text messages and Internet use or face regulation.

In frank language, the EU communications commissioner told company chiefs at the industry’s annual trade show that mobile phone companies would not be allowed to “rip off” EU citizens who travel in the 27-member bloc.

After regulating the roaming cost of phone calls, commissioner Viviane Reding has set her sights on the price of SMS and data transfer, which includes Internet use as well as email and other downloads.

“The deadline is July 1, and based on the offers on the market on that date we will decide ... whether or not further regulation will be required,” she told the Mobile World Congress trade show in Barcelona.

Reding has consistently railed against the cost of roaming in the European Union, which is when subscribers travel to another EU country and use their mobile phones -- for which they pay significantly higher tariffs than domestic use.

The European Commission says European consumers have seen the cost of making and receiving calls with their mobile phones abroad in Europe fall

by up to 60 per cent since an

European Union regulation forced price caps on mobile operators last year.

The latest proposal puts the EU executive body on another collision course with the industry. The Commission proposes regulations, but they must be ratified by EU member states and the EU parliament.

The head of the mobile phone industry body, the GSM Association, said afterwards that operators would “resist” any attempt to regulate.

The EU regulation on phoning entered into force on June 30, 2007, capping prices for dialling out at maximum 49 euro cents per minute excluding tax.—AFP