(BRUSSELS) - European mobile phone users will pay less to send text messages under plans to be unveiled on Tuesday, building on a past initiative to regulate the price of calls while abroad.

Frustrated with the high cost of sending text messages while abroad in the 27-nation bloc, the European Union's executive arm plans to regulate the price with a cap.

"We are going to propose a ceiling, a maximum price," a spokesman for the commission said Monday, declining to give further details.

Finding competition to be failing, EU telecommunications commissioner Viviane Reding pushed through a Europe-wide regulation last year imposing price caps on mobile operator roaming rates, or the price of calls made abroad.

Eager to spur more competition on other services, Reding had given mobile telephone operators until the start of July to bring down the cost of sending text messages and using the Internet on mobile phones.

She said recently that the threat had been "without much result" as the price of sending text messages abroad fell to just 28 euro cents from 29 cents in January.

However, the industry refutes her claims.

In April 2008, the price of text messages had fallen 18 percent from the same period in 2007 while the cost of mobile internet had fallen 25 percent, according to the GSM Association, which represents 750 mobile operators.

"Setting a price (cap) is a pretty extreme measure," a GSM Association official said.

He said that since French and Dutch voters voted against the EU's constitution in 2005 and Irish voters against the Lisbon Treaty in June, "the commission has become populist.

"The commission has gone from wanting to give a boost to business to giving gifts to consumers," he said.

In the face of opposition from mobile operators, Reding can count, however, on the support of national telecommunications regulators in EU countries.

The European Regulators Group determined recently that 11 to 15 euro cents per text message sent from abroad was enough for operators to cover their costs and have a reasonable margin. In April, Reding floated a price of 12 cents, including tax.

However, the ERG advised against taking action on mobile internet rates.

Operators are also eager for regulators to spare this fast emerging market, which grew 40 percent last year to seven billion euros, according to a study from consultants AT Kearney for the GSM Association.

If prices fall too much, operators could be discouraged from developing new services such as television over mobile phones and other devices.

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