The EU has warned Irish mobile phone companies that they cannot avoid new rules to scrap roaming charges.
The warning comes as several major networks indicated they would no longer include data packages as a "core" part of contracts.
Instead they would be reclassified as "service benefits" - meaning roaming charges could still apply to them.
But today the European Commission has hit out at those plans - saying there is "no loophole" by which data can be exempted.
It says: "Doing so would be a clear case of circumvention, for which there is no basis" in EU law.
