MOBILE operators are still charging rip off “roaming rates” when customers travel in Europe, according to an EU report.

In some cases, it can cost more to send a text when you are travelling in Europe than to make a one-minute call.

The EU clamped down on the cost of making and receiving calls abroad last year, but its latest report found the cost of texts and of using the internet on your phone, which were not covered by the regulations, remain high.

Customers are paying as much as £8 per Megabyte (MB) to download web data in some cases – £40 to download a typical MP3 song, against £1.50 if you did so in Britain.

Viviane Reding, the EU commissioner for telecoms, is also concerned customers can use 20 seconds of a call but still be charged for a full minute.

The difference between the billed and actual minutes used may be about 20%, according to the report.

The previous round of roaming regulations, which have been in force since June 30, forced mobile operators to slash call rates by more than 60%. UK providers cannot now charge more than 38p a minute to make a call in Europe, and no more than 19p to receive a call. Previously, callers could pay over £1 a minute to make or receive calls.

However, no such price limit exists for the 202 billion text messages that were sent in western Europe last year. Business travellers who check e-mails on a Blackberry from a foreign airport are also hit by these excessive rates.

O2 said last week that it will cut text rates for pay-as-you-go customers from 45p to 25p in April.

It also announced that it will slash data roaming rates by up to 80% for prepay customers, bringing the cost of roaming down to £3 per MB from the previous £15 per MB.

Contract customers will also pay £3 per MB – a reduction from £7.05. However, there is no firm date for when these reductions will come into effect.