UK mobile calls too expensive, claims EU chief

The EU's top competition minister has claims the UK's mobile operators' call charges abroad as too expensive.

Speaking at a conference in Madrid, Mario Monti, the EU competition commissioner, said
several UK and German mobile operators are charging too much from their customers when
they are making calls abroad.

Monti has called for an EU wide roaming tariff to be created and said he will be observing the situation closely in Britain.

"The commission has discovered some operators are blatantly overcharging. We will interfere with this matter soon in order to prevent the operators from abusing their customers by charging sky high prices from people travelling abroad," he was reported as saying in the continental press.

EU enterprise commissioner Erkki Liikanen is expected to announce his support for Monti's proposal when he is speaking to the European Union ministers.

Oftel recently warned consumers of the high-cost of international roaming charges.

The UK telco watchdog announced last December that British consumers, who are using pre-pay mobiles, are paying twice as much as users from France, Germany, Italy and Sweden for international roaming. Oftel said most customers are not aware of the high
level of charges.