The cost of sending text messages when travelling within the EU could fall by up to two-thirds, under proposals put forward by the European commission yesterday.

Signalling a fresh clash with leading mobile phone operators, Viviane Reding, EU telecoms commissioner, said: "EU citizens should be free to text across borders without being ripped off."

The EC said the 2.5bn text messages sent each year by "roaming" customers cost 10 times more than domestic texts. But the GSM Association, the global mobile phone industry trade body, insisted that average prices had fallen 18% in the past year to as little as €0.10 (7p) a message.

The European Regulators' Group, including the British regulator Ofcom, said the cap should be set at between €0.11 and €0.15 a text compared with the current EU average of €0.29. Domestic text messages can cost as little as €0.034.

Reding indicated that she favoured setting the cap close to the 12 cents she proposed earlier this year. She said British holidaymakers could currently expect to be charged €0.63 a text when roaming in Spain compared with €0.30 for the French and €0.41 for Germans.