Huge cuts in the cost of making mobile phone calls abroad will be introduced within months, after a threat by Brussels to fast-track new “roaming” laws.

The move — which should cut the cost of making calls in Europe by up to 60 per cent by June this year — could also see the cost of sending texts and downloading music while abroad, slashed.

Viviane Reding, the EU Commissioner for Information, Society and Media, has delivered an ultimatum to mobile operators on data charges, The Times can reveal.

She has warned companies, including Vodafone, to either slash the costs of data downloading abroad voluntarily or face having the cuts imposed on them.

Plans to end the “unacceptable” surcharges imposed by phone companies for making mobile calls abroad were outlined by the European Commission last summer. They followed years of complaints from consumer groups about “rip-off” charges that were up to 50 times more expensive than a standard UK national call. Many customers were also alarmed to discover high fees for receiving calls — and sometimes texts — while on holiday, not just for making them.

The commission proposals involved setting a maximum price of 11p a minute for receiving calls, 34p a minute for calling home and 23p a minute for calls within a country.

But the plans met fierce opposition from operators for whom “roaming” revenues form a substantial chunk of their revenues — up to 18 per cent, according to some independent studies. Such opposition, said industry experts, meant it was unlikely that Ms Reding’s plans would stand a chance of taking affect by this summer.

However, after a summit to discuss the changes, the European Council said it was “pushing for a fast-track agreement on roaming.” It said that heads of EU member states have “agreed that every effort should be made to successfully conclude the legislative process on the reduction of roaming tariffs by the end of the first half of 2007”.

Ms Reding added that a “political agreement on. . . ambitious reduction of roaming tariffs by summer is now within reach.”

Last night the mobile operators remained insistent that the regulation was not necessary.

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