IT’S the obvious way to keep up with the news from home when you are abroad. Want to check up on how your football team did? Or read a few e-mails? Just tap into the internet over your mobile.

The reality is, though, that the cost of doing this could be almost as much as the holiday itself.

New research into the cost of downloading data on a mobile has shown that phone companies are charging huge mark-ups for Britons using the service while out of the UK.

While the cost of accessing the net over a mobile in this country using 2.5G or 3G technology ranges typically from about £2-£4 per megabyte, when abroad it can be up to six times more expensive.

The huge prices means that downloading a single song could cost up to £100.

Accessing websites with many pictures and features and sending e-mails over a holiday period could also trigger a bill for hundreds of pounds.

Though mobile consumers are increasingly aware of the mark-ups for phoning home and texting from abroad, many have failed to recognise that accessing the internet on their mobile is also subject to an extra cost.

Some have complained of returning home from holiday only to be faced with massive bills.

And while the mobile phone companies advertise on their websites the charges for calling and texting from abroad it can prove far more difficult to find the cost of accessing the internet while on holiday.

The mobile phone operators last night defended the charges.

A spokesman for O2 said: “Just as with phone and texts we are hampered by the amount we have to pay to the local networks to operate the service.”

He said that O2 was working to try to cut that price and pass on the saving to customers. But last night MPs and consumer groups condemned the charges and demanded an investigation by Ofcom, the UK’s telecoms watchdog.

Norman Lamb, the Trade and Industry spokesman for the Liberal Democrats, said: “These are rip-off prices. The operators need to give customers a fair deal.”

He said that he was planning to write to Ofcom to demand that it looks into the costs.

As the mobile phone operators have sought new ways to make money they have keenly pushed the use of data services.

Customers can click into the net while on the move either on a 2.5G phone using so-called GPRS technology or on a 3G phone.

But while in this country these kinds of services are often “bundled” into a monthly subscription to give the best value for money, when abroad customers will often find they are being charged for each site they access.

In the UK, Orange contract customers accessing the net are charged £3 for the first 3 megabytes they use. In contrast, when they are abroad they will be charged up to £25 per megabyte.

A spokesman for Ofcom said: “Regulators are looking into international charges for voice calls and text but data is a comparatively new area and we have no plans to look into this at present.”

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