Brussels, 07/10/2002 (Agence Europe) - According to The Sunday Times, the European Commission is preparing to cross a new stage in its inquiry into roaming services within the EU. Opened in July 2001, the inquiry aims to verify whether the prices invoiced to consumers who use their mobile phone abroad ("roaming") are excessive. Services under Commissioner Monti suspect there may be agreements between operators to fix excessively high prices. The telecom operators involved (including Vodafone and MMO2) should, "in coming weeks", receive a letter of grievances following a study of documents collected during inspections carried out on their premises by the Commission. The companies concerned, which could be fined a maximum of £80 million, will have two months in which to defend themselves from the date of reception of the letter of grievances.