(BRUSSELS) - The European Commission said Monday it would not stop telecoms firms from charging customers for calls received on their mobile phones in their own country but warned that users could oppose the move.

"This is for companies to decide. If companies think that this makes their offer particularly attractive, then we will not forbid it," said telecoms spokesman, Martin Selmayr, when asked if the system might change in Europe.

"But we will also not force companies to move to that," he said, adding that the commission would not be imposing any so-called "bill and keep" business model on them.

Europeans pay to make mobile calls but are generally only charged for receiving them when they are abroad. Users elsewhere, in the United States and some parts of Asia, notably China, pay for both even in their home country.

At the moment in the EU, telecoms companies bill each other a "mobile termination charge" for calls made between any two networks which is then passed on to customers.

The commission, the EU's competition watchdog, wants to cut the mobile termination charge, which averages around nine euro cents (14 US cents) per minute, across the 27 EU nations.

The charge ranges from as low as two cents to as high as 20 cents, with Cyprus costing the least, while Bulgaria and Poland were among the most expensive.

Selmayr said the idea is to cut these charges to a level that would incite mobile phone operators to "move to a less bureaucratic system of bill-and-keep in the long run.

"It is not something that happens from one day to another," he said, adding that it was a long-term measure that would mean "less administrative burden, less red tape, more competition and in the end, lower charges for consumers."

The telecoms industry itself reserved its opinion.

"The principle is that customers don't pay in Europe (to get calls). It's well understood and accepted by consumers," said David Pringle, spokesman for the London-based GSM Association, which represents some 750 mobile operators worldwide.

He said the market was changing rapidly and it would be up to individual mobile operators to decide what to do.

But he added: "I would be surprised that any operator says that now."

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