Britain’s mobile phone companies face a crackdown on the high fees that they charge users for downloading data such as music tracks and e-mails when they are abroad after a European Commission inquiry.

A study into the cost of sending text messages, downloading music and surfing the internet while away from home has been commissioned by Viviane Reding, the Commissioner for Information Society and Media.

The findings, which should be published in December, are the first steps in an inquiry that could lead to the mobile operators being forced to cut their prices. A final decision will not be taken until autumn next year.

A spokesman for the Commission said: “It is Ms Reding’s preference for the mobile operators to bring down their prices voluntarily and she has called on them to do this.” The spokesman added that if they did not, “she will be forced to take action”.

Internet access is now a standard feature on mobile phones. Users can access the net on 2.5G phones using GPRS technology or via “next-generation” 3G technology.

Many consumers, however, are unaware of the much higher prices charged by phone companies for data abroad. They find out only when they return home to high bills.

The mark-ups on data abroad are in addition to the marked-up prices on making and receiving calls.

At home an O2 pay monthly customer can sign up to a package under which he pays £7.50 a month for unlimited data access. However, customers using data abroad are charged at £6 per megabyte. That means that downloading only two songs would hit a subscriber with a £12 bill.

Brussels has already forced the mobile companies to reduce charges for calling home from abroad by up to 70 per cent after classing the costs as extortionate. However, data has remained untouched.

Mobile operators are expected to fight vigorously against any cuts to the charges, which form a key part of their future sales plan.

The operators are relying on uptake of the lucrative services to enable them to claw back the huge sums that they paid out during the auction for 3G licences at the height of the dot-com boom.

Together, Britain’s main mobile operators paid £22.5 billion for the right to “next-generation” technology. Consumers, however, have remained stubbornly uninterested and calls and text messages still make up the bulk of the phone companies’ revenues.

Yesterday O2 said that it strongly advised contract customers intending to use data abroad to sign up to specific packages.

How they compare

Vodafone
In the UK

— Contract: £1 a day
— Pay-as-you-go: £ 1 a day

Abroad

— Contract: £5-£8 a day
— Pay-as-you-go: £8 per Mb

Orange
In the UK

— Contract: £1.50 daily cap or £8 a month for unlimited access
— Pay-as-you-go: £2 daily cap or £5 for a week of unlimited access.

Abroad

— Contract: £8 per Mb
— Pay-as-You-go: £8 per Mb

O2
In the UK

— Contract: £7.50 a month unlimited use
— Pay-as-you-go: £7.50 a month unlimited use

Abroad

— Contract: £6 per Mb
— Pay-as-you-go: £15 per Mb

(Abroad is based on cost in France)

— A standard music track is typically around 3-5 MB
— A standard web page is around 100 kilobytes

Source: Company websites

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