(BRUSSELS) - Calling home from European beaches will be cheaper for mobile phone users this summer if EU lawmakers and the European Commission get their way on planned caps for so-called roaming rates.

Plans to force operators to charge less on cross-border calls in the European Union got a boost last week when a key EU panel backed the package in the face of fierce lobbying from operators fearful of losing revenues.

The European Parliament's industry committee voted broadly in favour of capping the price of calls made abroad in the EU at 40 cents per minute and 15 cents for calls received abroad.

The committee's backing sets the stage for a vote before the full parliament in a plenary session on May 10 in Brussels and a final decision by EU telecoms ministers on June 7 in Luxembourg.

After the vote, the bill's rapporteur, Austrian conservative Paul Ruedig, told journalists: "We are sending a very clear message to the consumers and telecom operators. It's a good basis for our deliberations."

"I now expect swift and successful negotiations with (EU governments) so that the new roaming regulation can enter into force indeed before summer," he said.

The Commission drew up the plans to regulate roaming rates last year after it found evidence of huge variations between operators' prices, with some roaming calls costing up to six times those of local mobile calls.

The EU's executive arm hopes to see roaming charges fall by as much as 70 percent, thanks to its proposal to cap what operators charge customers at the retail level and what they charge each other at the wholesale level.

"In view of the emerging consensus on the new rules, an early entry into force of the EU roaming regulation is now a very realistic possibility," EU telecoms Commissioner Viviane Reding said.

However, the plans, which operators are fighting fiercely to amend, still face key political, technical and legal hurdles, raising the prospect that introduction of the price ceilings could take longer than she hoped.

The chairwoman of the parliament's industry committee, German conservative Angelika Niebler, warned last week that "this summer roaming won't be cheaper" for holiday-makers, predicting that the measures would not be in force before autumn.

Even if there were no disagreements on the details of the package and EU governments backed it, the measures would not go into force until the end of June under the version favoured by the parliament's committee.

If that is the case, lower retail prices would not take effect until a month later, meaning that consumers would benefit only from the end of July in the best of circumstances.

While consumers stand to make big savings, the industry says that they will be forced to offer roaming services at below cost and has suggested operators would be forced to cover the losses by raising prices for other services.

In the opposite camp, economist Levi Nietvelt at the BEUC European consumers' association said: "The price caps are still too high and should be readjusted to reflect the real costs."

Consumer organisations are also angry that the proposals as they currently stand are only to be applicable for three years.

"It's more than probable that in three years consumers will still need the regulations," French consumer association UFC-Que Choisir said in a statement.

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