Millions of travellers will pay much less to use their mobile phones while abroad within the European Union after new regulations came into force today.

Under the new limits there is a single tariff covering all 27 EU member states - bringing the maximum charge for making a call while abroad down to 37p per minute. Receiving calls now costs a maximum of 17p per minute.

Sending a text message from another country inside the EU costs no more than 10p. Data transfers have also fallen, with one megabyte of data now costing 85p. The limits exclude tax.

Mobile operators now also have to bill customers by the second from the 30th second of a call in order prevent them from rounding up to the highest minute, a practice which has cost consumers dearly up until now.

The move comes after an EU led campaign to reduce roaming charges that were seen as unfair to the consumer.

"The roaming rip-off is now coming to an end," said EU telecommunications commissioner Viviane Reding. "Expect the new roaming rules to make it much cheaper to surf the web on your mobile while abroad in the EU.

"I call on the mobile industry to pass these savings on to data roaming customers swiftly," Reding said.

"The (European) Commission and national regulators will monitor data roaming charges very carefully and assess next year whether the roaming market is finally becoming competitive."

The new charges come as the second piece of good news for European mobile users this week. On Monday, most of the major mobile manufacturers signed up to a universal standard phone charger that will work across different brands and handsets.

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