SKY-HIGH international mobile phone charges

can make it cheaper to FLY abroad for a chat with a pal than to call them up.

Industry insiders confirm that UK customers are charged up to 50 TIMES what the networks actually pay for international mobile-to-mobile call time.

On average the mark-up is a whopping 1,174 per cent.

The revelation comes in the week the EU pledged to cut the costs of using mobiles abroad.

You could fly to Vitoria, near Bilbao, in Spain, for just £10 all-in with Ryanair—£8 CHEAPER than a one-hour call with ‘3' at 30p a minute. It also costs a tenner to fly to Wroclaw in Poland, but a one-hour Orange call would again cost £18.

Add that kind of mark-up to a £2.50 pint of lager and it would cost you £29.35. The mark-up is calculated by comparing what it costs networks to buy minutes with the amount customers are charged.

A minute of mobile-to-mobile calling from the UK to places like Spain and Portugal costs networks between 7 and 8p a minute to buy. But ‘3' charge 30p a minute and 02 charge 17p. It's a similar story for other countries.

A minute's call time from the UK to the US can cost networks just 0.6p, but ‘3' will charge 30p—a mark up of 5,000 PER CENT.

The figures have been revealed by Rebtel, an internet mobile phone firm. Industry expert Colin Duffy, a former BT manager with his own mobile firm Voipfone, said: "The prices they charge are a rip-off."

A spokesman for ‘3' did not deny the figures but insisted they had worked to bring down the cost of international calls. An O2 spokesman said lower rates for international calls were available. Orange said: "These details are commercially sensitive."