The figures, released Tuesday by the European Commission, showed Lithuania becomes a country with the least expensive mobile phone costs, where people pay 1.9 cents per minute.

　　In Ireland, the cost per minute is 10.2 cents. The most expensive country is the Netherlands at 14.7 cents per minute.

　　The EU average is 9.1 cents. There is a 774 percent difference between the cheapest and the most expensive.

　　The European Commission said these price differences cannot be explained by differences in quality, differences in the cost of providing the service, or by differences between countries in consumer purchasing power.

　　"As these numbers clearly show, the 28 national telecoms markets in Europe today are not benefiting consumers like a single market would," said European Commission Vice President Neelie Kroes.

　　"It is critical for the whole EU to move quickly to build a real single market to achieve a truly connected continent," she added.

　　There are much smaller price differentials in other categories of basic goods and services in the European single market. For example a liter of milk can be bought for between 0.69 cents and 0.99 cents wherever they are in the EU, a price difference of 43 percent. An occasional purchase like an iPad is subject to only an 11 percent price difference across the EU.

　　Neelie Kroes will present a new package aimed at strengthening the telecoms single market next month.