The European commission (EC) may decide to impose price cuts on SMS roaming because mobile operators have not lowered charges themselves, it has been claimed.

Communications analyst company Informa Telecoms & Media has said suggested that this may be the outcome if companies do not make the price cuts voluntarily, Computer Weekly has reported.

"Operators have been noticeably willing to bend to the EU’s will regarding non-messaging data, which includes mobile broadband services for laptop users, but have left SMS to the mercy of the regulators," Angela Stainthorpe, research analyst and author of the report, told the news provider.

EU Commissioner Vivien Reding said earlier this year that the EU would have to intervene unless it saw "evidence of transparent and credible data roaming tariffs from operators".

This follows recent news that the EC is bringing in new e-commerce laws to help regulate selling on the internet.

A recent Connect survey found that the two major concerns about outsourcing services like IT support were 'loss of control' (56 per cent) and 'budget over-runs' (43 per cent)