(BRUSSELS) - European business people and holiday-makers could pay less to use their mobile phones while abroad in the European Union if EU plans unveiled Tuesday live up to their aims.

However, mobile phone operators are fuming that Brussels once again has them in its sights after the European Commission successfully imposed a controversial cap last year on the price of making phone calls while abroad in Europe.

In a new drive to cut the cost of such roaming services, the European Union's executive arm came out with plans to regulate the price of sending text messages while abroad in the EU.

In addition to text message, or SMS, prices, the commission's package also includes measures to further limit the cost of voice calls and surfing the Internet on a mobile phone.

"Using your mobile phone abroad in the EU should not cost unjustifiably more than at home, whether for making calls, sending texts or surfing the Web," said EU Telecommunications Commissioner Viviane Reding.

"Europe's 37 million tourists and 110 million business travellers are waiting for the promise of the borderless single market to finally have a positive impact on their phone bills," she added.

Firing a new salvo at mobile operators, the commission proposed legislation to limit the price of sending a text message from one EU country to another to no more than 11 euro cents.

If approved by member states and the European Parliament, the cap would take effect on July 1, 2009 and would exclude sales tax.

Currently, it costs 29 cents on average to send a text message across EU borders, which the commission considers to be unjustifiably high because sending a message domestically costs 10 times less on average.

On voice calls, the commission proposed to keep gradually lowering a cap on the price of cross-border calls in Europe until 2012 instead of 2010, as legislation introduced last year foresees.

The GSM Association representing mobile operators baulked at the proposal, blasting it as a short-sighted drive seeking political gain with consumers.

"It is barely a year since the EU took the highly unusual step of introducing retail price caps for voice roaming and there needs to be a comprehensive analysis of their impact before further regulatory measures," association spokesman David Pringle said.

"A short-term political agenda should not take precedence over the long-term economic impact of regulation," he added.

The commission also proposed to require mobile operators to bill callers by the second after the first 30 seconds of a call between EU countries in a bid to clamp down on rounding up calls to the minute.

The EU executive also wants consumers by 2010 to have the chance to set in advance limits on how much they can use their mobiles to surf the Internet while abroad so that they do not get "bill shocks" when they get back home.

Reding cited in particular the case of one person who had tried to download a television show over a mobile phone line only to discover later that it cost a whopping 40,000 euros.

Users would also get an automatic message informing them of prices of such services when they enter a new EU country and at the wholesale level, fees would be limited.

Commission initiative to cut cost of texting and mobile data services abroad - briefing

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