EU's Reding gives operators summer data target

By Huw Jones

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Europe's mobile phone operators have until the summer to cut the cost of using handsets or laptops to download data while customers are travelling or else face mandatory change, the European Union's top telecoms regulator said on Thursday.

"Summer is the deadline," EU Information Society and Media Commissioner, Viviane Reding, told Reuters.

Earlier in remarks to the British Chamber of Commerce, Reding said the cost of data roaming must come down, a message she will drive home to chief executives of mobile operators at next month's GSM conference in Barcelona, Spain.

"Industry claims they don't need regulation. I say get it done," Reding said.

"If they don't get it done, I will have to put regulation on the table. I believe data roaming has to be at a normal price," Reding said.

The European Commission, the EU's executive body, usually ends its work for the summer by late July.

Last year the 27-nation EU adopted a proposal from Reding to cut the cost of making and receiving voice calls outside a person's home state.

It was not possible at the time to include data, which includes text messages, as an impact assessment had not been completed. Her aides are now analysing the roaming data market, she said.