The European Commission plans to use new administrative powers to push national regulators to lower the fees that mobile operators can charge each other to connect calls between their networks. Much of the savings would be passed on to consumers.

The recommendation, if adopted locally, would reduce the charges by an average of 70 percent within three years, the commission estimates. Industry analysts say much of the savings would be passed on to consumers in lower per-minute calling charges or larger bundled packages of free minutes.

The commission’s proposal, obtained by the International Herald Tribune, does not estimate the amount of potential savings for consumers, but analysts say it could be greater than those generated by Reding’s move to reduce roaming charges. The commission has said those caps could cost operators €2 billion, or $3.1 billion, out of the €5.8 billion they collect annually in roaming fees.

[via IHT]