Ireland's newest mobile network, 3, has abolished higher call charges for customers who make or receive calls while roaming in the UK.

From today, all domestic and UK calls made and received while roaming on UK networks will be included as part of the bundle of minutes offered on 3 Ireland's monthly price plans.

If the calls use up more than half a customer's allotted monthly minutes, they are charged at 30 cent per minute, the same price as a local call.

The company has also eliminated international charges for calls to all UK numbers from the Republic of Ireland. Customers can use up half of their monthly minutes for calls to the UK.

The mobile phone operator's move follows an announcement by Vodafone last week that it is to abolish UK roaming charges for bill paying customers who sign up to its Vodafone Passport deal. However the calls cannot be included as part of the inclusive minutes granted under its monthly price plans.

Vodafone Passport customers who travel to countries other than the UK pay a connection charge of 79 cent and then the same call rate that they do at home.

Last month, 02 Ireland dropped its roaming charges for customers using its network in Northern Ireland and also eliminated them for business customers travelling to the rest of the UK.

Robert Finnegan, 3 Ireland's managing director, said he believed that the other operators' roaming offerings did not go far enough.

The network, which operates one of the Republic's third-generation (3G) mobile phone licences, is owned by Hutchison Whampoa group, which holds 3G licences in nine other countries.

The operator has also announced that video calls to the 3 network will now be charged at the same rate as voice calls, 30 cent per minute.