MILLIONS of people heading abroad this summer will have to wait for their mobile firm to cut call costs, despite the European Union’s decision to cap charges last week, because it has given firms up to four months to implement the changes.

You could still slash your bill by two-thirds in the meantime, though, by switching to a cheaper tariff – or even leaving your mobile at home and using your laptop instead.

European MPs voted overwhelmingly in favour of the plan to slash “roaming” charges – the cost of using your mobile abroad.

At the moment, the average cost to make a call from France is 71p a minute and 52p a minute to receive one. With the Brussels agreement reached last week, however, the cost will be capped at 33p a minute and incoming calls at 16p – a cut of up to 70%. By 2009, the limits will drop again, to 29p and 13p.

But the schedule in place for the implementation of the legislation means that holidaymakers in July and most of August will not be able to use the new “Eurotariff”.

From July, networks have one month to offer the price cap to customers, a further month to apply the new tariff once the customer responds and then another month to automatically activate capped rates for customers who have still not responded. The new rates should become automatic on September 29.

If you already have a cheap roaming deal with your provider, you can opt to stay with it assuming that your network does not cancel the package.

Places outside the EU such as the US, Canada, Australia, Switzerland and Asia are not included in the new legislation, which also does not cover text and data messaging. However, Viviane Reding, the EU telecoms commissioner, said that she would target those charges if the service providers did not also bring them down in price voluntarily.

The move to cut charges will be welcomed by consumers because the average monthly bill shoots up by £12.75 while abroad, costing them a total of £230m a year, according to Uswitch, a comparison site.

Karen Darby of Simply Switch, another price-comparison service, said: “While we support any action that leads to a better deal for the customer, we should brace ourselves for the fact that mobile operators will try to claw back some of their lost earnings through other channels.”

While the changes won’t be up and running for more than four months there are still plenty of ways to cut your roaming costs this summer.

Find a cheaper tariff

Before you go on holiday, find out if your mobile operator offers a cheaper overseas deal. Most do, but they often keep quiet about it, so check with your network whether it offers a special product such as a “bundle” – a fixed amount of cheaper minutes.

T-Mobile is the only UK operator to have slashed its roaming rates for all customers to 55p a minute – but they are still above domestic levels.

The firm also offers customers “bundles” of cheaper minutes starting at £15 for 30 minutes – in effect 50p a minute – for calls made and received within a period of 42 days.

These can be used in a number of destinations including the USA, Italy, France, Ire-land and Canada.

Orange charges 70p a minute for a call from Spain to Britain, or £1.10 a minute from the US. However, it does offer bundles of cheap minutes that can be used in the EU. For £15 a month, customers can get 25 minutes – in effect 60p a minute O2 normally charges 85p to make a call from Spain and £1.37 from the US, but you can sign up to its Chosen Country package for £5 a month, which

allows you to receive calls while abroad for free. Calls to the UK cost a flat rate of 25p per minute. Unfortunately the offer only applies to Spain but O2 is planning to add further countries.

O2 customers can, however, buy a monthly discount with its My Europe Extra tariff at £10 a month. It offers calls across Europe from 25p a minute against a standard rate of 85p.

If you make longer calls of about 30 minutes, Vodafone Passport is worth a look. You are charged local rates of 18p a minute to landlines and 40p to mobiles after a connection charge of 75p if you are on the Anytime 200 package and you have used your free minutes.

Get a Sim card

If you travel abroad regularly and use your mobile a lot, the best bet is to buy a global Sim card which you can slip into the back of your mobile. It will then route you over local networks.

You can buy Sim cards online at sites such as Onecompare. com before you leave home. Make sure, however, that your phone is unlocked, otherwise you will not be able to benefit.

To unlock your phone, you will need to contact your provider. Some may do it for free but it depends on your contract.

O2, for example, charges a £15 fee. Some shops may also unlock your phone for you.

A global Sim card from My Cherry Mobile costs £15 and calls cost 22p from Spain and £1.05p from the US. You get one international mobile number for life and there is no contract or monthly fee.

Take your laptop and use the internet

You could use your laptop to make calls using voice-over-in-ternet protocol (Voip). If you download Skype software, calls to other users are free and calls to nonusers cost 1.4p a minute to landlines and 16.6p to mobiles.

It is also possible to make internet voice calls using a mobile. But experts do not recommend it as you will have to pay international data roaming rates which are very high.

Select a cheap network

If you decide to stay with a standard roaming tariff, contact your network or check online before you leave the UK to find out which local provider at your destination offers the best rates because costs can greatly differ.

When you arrive at your destination, your phone will automatically select a network, typically the one with the strongest signal. But before you make a call, manually select the cheapest network.

For example, a Vodafone customer on a standard tariff travelling to Australia would be charged 99p to call the UK with either Telstra or Optus Mobile, two local providers.

However, if he or she selected Vodafone Australia, the call would cost just 70p – 25% less.

STAYING AFLOAT ON A TRIP DOWN UNDER

KIRSTY DIXON, 39, and Andrew Longley, 38, have just come back from a three-month trip around the world.

They spent most of the time in New Zealand and Australia but didn’t use their mobiles to call home because of the high charges. Instead they bought phone cards locally, which cost about £4 and gave about three hours of call time to the UK.

The couple, from Etchinghill in Kent, also chose their credit cards carefully. They each took out a card from the Post Office before they went because it is one of the few providers not to charge a fee when you use its cards abroad. It also offers a three-month interest-free period on purchases.