THE mobile-phone operator 3 has banned its customers from downloading data to their laptops while abroad to save them from giant bills when they return from travelling.

The unusual move comes as EU telecoms commissioner Viviane Reding decides in the next two weeks whether to impose legislation to force mobile companies to cut the amount they charge users to “roam” onto their networks overseas. 3, owned by Hong Kong conglomerate Hutchison Whampoa, will only let customers engage in “data roaming” abroad if they specifically ask for it, and even then it will recommend that they impose a £50 credit limit on their accounts.

The move affects several hundred thousand 3 customers with “dongles”, which connect laptops to the internet on the move, but does not cover its phone customers sending text messages.

It is acting before the main holiday season, when phone bills typically soar.

Chief executive Kevin Russell wants regulators to close the gap between what customers are charged at home and abroad. He fears that Brussels will legislate on texting but leave data alone because it is still a developing market.

“Some vested interests have dismissed the urgency of the issue by saying that data-roaming costs have come down and the market is immature,” Russell said. “But using mobile data isn’t just the preserve of a handful of business people anymore.”

After acting against voice-roaming charges last year, Reding gave mobile operators until July 1 to cut the cost of sending text messages and downloading data overseas. Most responded, with T-Mobile reducing its data-roaming charges by 80%, for example.

Ed Richards, the chief executive of Ofcom, the telecoms regulator, echoed Reding’s concern, saying that paying 21p to send a text abroad versus 5.6p at home and £4.11 per megabyte (Mb) of data was a “significant hurdle” to the take-up of mobile internet. 3 proposed a reciprocal wholesale rate of €0.25 per MB. It has been at the forefront of the campaign by smaller mobile operators to cut charges.

Operators make much of their money from the use of their networks by noncustomers. As the smallest UK operator, 3 has the most to gain from stripping out higher costs because it is more reliant on rivals’ networks overseas.

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