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Asked if she was prepared to back the system, already used in the US, EU Telecoms Commissioner Viviane Reding told the newspaper: "Why not? The whole market is developing so we should not stay on the rules that have been in place 10 years."

Charges for accepting calls could be part of a new business model for mobile phone operators, as the European Commission presses them to lower the cost of texting and downloading data abroad.

The European Regulators Group, made up of the EU's 27 national telecoms watchdogs, says intervention is needed to cap roamed SMS prices but that data roaming, still in its infancy, requires more careful study.

The Commission has already capped roaming charges for mobile phone users abroad.