The Irish and British governments today set a deadline to combat the problem of inadvertent mobile phone roaming in Border areas.
The UK's telecommunications regulator Ofcom found pay-as-you-go customers in Northern Ireland could pay up to six times the charges paid by contract customers as a result of being connected to a base station in the Republic.
Telecommunications regulators on both sides of the Border have been asked to prepare a report outlining a better deal for consumers by the end of March.
Minister for Communications Noel Dempsey said feedback from Ofcom and the Commission for Communications Regulation (ComReg) in the Republic indicated some companies were investigating the introduction of special tariffs.
Mr Dempsey said: "It is our hope that the companies listen to their customers and develop a tariff-based solution.
"We welcome the engagement of the operators with the regulators to date and have asked the regulators to report back to us at the end of March with concrete actions to address this important issue."
An estimated 70 per cent of mobile phone users in the Republic and in the North are pay-as-you-go customers and therefore do not receive the same benefits as contract customers.
Research also found 43 per cent of mobile phone customers in Northern Ireland had been connected to a cross-border base station while still in the North.
The North's Enterprise minister Angela Smith said: "The update from the regulators on progress made in their engagement with the mobile phone operators identifies two potential solutions to the problem: one based on reducing incidents of inadvertent roaming through improving network coverage and the other focusing on specific tariffs for mobile phone users on the island of Ireland.
"Inadvertent mobile phone roaming impacts on a significant number of people living, working and travelling through the border area. "It is now time for this issue to be resolved conclusively."
It is hoped a further survey by regulators will lead to progress on the issue of network coverage and tariffs by the Spring.
PA