Calling home from overseas? Don't use your mobile

Sick of sky-high bills when you use your mobile phone overseas? You are not alone, and with the increasing use of the internet on phones, the bills are growing larger.

The issue of big global roaming charges has made its way to the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development, which has found tighter regulation on mobile phone carriers may be the answer.

Each network negotiates access with overseas carriers and the home provider pays hefty fees to the foreign carrier - a charge that is passed on to consumers.

But a report from the OECD, which includes most developed countries, proposes governments around the world agree to regulate the wholesale access charges to bring them closer to the actual cost of delivering the service.

The report found prices to be ''unreasonably high'' around the world, and blamed high wholesale charges, lack of competition and lack of consumer awareness of alternatives.

It found more competition was not the answer, and instead said ''directly regulating roaming prices may be the only way to guarantee that consumers are not unreasonably charged''.

Consumer groups have backed the idea, saying they have been advising people to not use their mobile abroad.

''There's no question that there's a massive margin that is going in someone's pockets, and it's not really for the cost of the calls,'' said Teresa Corbin, deputy chief executive of the Australian Communications Consumer Action Network.

For many places and with many carriers, people were better off using their mobile phone only to receive messages. They should use a local phone card or buy a local SIM card to call back.

Rosemary Sinclair, the managing director of the Australian Telecommunications Users Group, said data services drove bills up. In one case users were charged A$20 (NZ$26) per megabyte downloaded overseas: ''It's a global problem, particularly with iPhones.''

The industry in Australia says 75 per cent of the cost of roaming comes from the price charged by overseas operators.

- © Fairfax NZ News