The EU parliament's decision to slash the cost of making mobile phone calls abroad has been welcome by the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB).Britain's largest business organisation said the news will not only benefit businesses that trade internationally but it will also be of great benefit to companies in the border regions of Northern Ireland. Callers here often incur charges when their phones automatically switch to stronger signals from south of the border."This is great news for small businesses like mine that operate across EU member states and find charges for making and receiving calls hugely expensive," said Tina Sommer from the FSB."Nearly a quarter of FSB members currently trade with other EU member states. Information technology and e-commerce have opened up the single market to small businesses," she added.Ms Sommer also commented on the speculation that phone operators may give with one hand and take away with the other and look to recoup some of the lost revenue by hiking up the cost of domestic calls."The European parliament and the other EU institutions need to ensure that their good work here is not undone by adding costs to the use of information technology elsewhere," she concluded.Earlier this week the European parliament voted to cap the roaming charge that mobile phone users have to pay when using the service outside their country of residence, which could see reductions of as much as 75 per cent.© Adfero Ltd