Jajah has launched an international phone roaming service that it says will rival the prices set by European Union (EU) price caps for mobile phones.

The Jajah Roam Home international calling service gives registered users the opportunity to make phone calls from their hotel landlines from 1.7p a minute compared to the 34p a minute mobile service providers are required to charge under EU law from this summer.

To use the service users must log onto the Jajah website and type in their hotel phone number and room extension prior to departure.

Once at the destination hotel users can then use a web-connected computer or Symbian-based phone to access the website and ring home. The call will be connected for the price of a local call plus the Jajah rate, which is free to other Jajah users or from 1.7p in countries such as France, Spain and Italy.

Roman Scharf, co-founder of Jajah said that the service had been set up to “stop consumers being ripped off by mobile phone rates” which are still too high.

“Whilst it is understandable that mobile phone providers need to make their money back from the licenses they have had to pay for in each country it is not fair to charge consumers over the odds,” he told Computeractive.

“We can not stop these providers on our own, we are just one player in a group of many trying to create competition in the international calling sector which we hope will give the consumer a better deal by driving down such costs,” he added.