A Dow Jones Newswires report claims that European Union member states are proposing bigger than expected cuts to the cost of data roaming. The report cites information from a draft working document, which claims that European telecom ministers want to make operators bill by kilobyte of data downloaded, rather than the current practice of billing per megabyte. Such a move would likely reduce prices for consumers.

The reported move is the latest European effort to reduce data roaming charges. Last month EU telecoms commissioner Viviane Reding confirmed plans to impose price caps on SMS and data roaming within the EU, a move criticised by many European mobile operators. Today’s Dow Jones report says European Council telecom ministers will have to decide on the roaming regulation proposals by November 27. The European Parliament, which will also have its say on the regulation, is expected to vote on it sometime in April.