Shrygue
September 23rd, 2008, 18:52
via Gizmodo (http://uk.gizmodo.com/2008/09/23/eu_to_end_texting_ripoff.html#more)
The pin-up girl for the mobile telecoms industry, the European Union's media and open society commissioner, Viviane Reding, is aiming to cap roaming text charges at just 11 cents.
Already hated by mobile phone companies by forcing them to cap roaming phone call charges, Reding told German broadsheet, Der Spiegel, that she's going to force them to reduce their roaming texting charges in order to put an end to the "rip offs"!
She said:
"We are going to set a cap of 11 cents for each text message sent abroad. Up to now a German who is sending a text from (the Spanish resort island of) Mallorca has to pay 60 cents and someone from Belgium has to pay up to 80 cents - whereas at home that is usually between 8 and 10 cents. The costs don't even begin to justify these high prices. That is why we are now putting an end to the rip-offs!"
Her proposals will be rolled out later today and if she gets the support needed by the EU parliament, she is confident that we'll see the caps in place by "next summer".
And that's not all, she also has mobile Internet/data charges in her sights too.
"[Mobile Internet] can cost a fortune abroad. If someone in Germany downloads two or three SPIEGEL ONLINE articles onto their mobile, let's say a megabyte, then that would cost around 15 cents. If the same person did that abroad the cost would be between €6 and €11. A German holidaymaker just wrote to me to saw that he was in Austria and had used his iPhone as often as he would at home. It cost him €11,000 ($16,153). There has to be more competition here and particularly greater transparency. That is what we are working on."
Go girl, go! That said, there are real fears that mobile operators may attempt to recoup lost revenue in the UK by charging us for calls we receive.
The pin-up girl for the mobile telecoms industry, the European Union's media and open society commissioner, Viviane Reding, is aiming to cap roaming text charges at just 11 cents.
Already hated by mobile phone companies by forcing them to cap roaming phone call charges, Reding told German broadsheet, Der Spiegel, that she's going to force them to reduce their roaming texting charges in order to put an end to the "rip offs"!
She said:
"We are going to set a cap of 11 cents for each text message sent abroad. Up to now a German who is sending a text from (the Spanish resort island of) Mallorca has to pay 60 cents and someone from Belgium has to pay up to 80 cents - whereas at home that is usually between 8 and 10 cents. The costs don't even begin to justify these high prices. That is why we are now putting an end to the rip-offs!"
Her proposals will be rolled out later today and if she gets the support needed by the EU parliament, she is confident that we'll see the caps in place by "next summer".
And that's not all, she also has mobile Internet/data charges in her sights too.
"[Mobile Internet] can cost a fortune abroad. If someone in Germany downloads two or three SPIEGEL ONLINE articles onto their mobile, let's say a megabyte, then that would cost around 15 cents. If the same person did that abroad the cost would be between €6 and €11. A German holidaymaker just wrote to me to saw that he was in Austria and had used his iPhone as often as he would at home. It cost him €11,000 ($16,153). There has to be more competition here and particularly greater transparency. That is what we are working on."
Go girl, go! That said, there are real fears that mobile operators may attempt to recoup lost revenue in the UK by charging us for calls we receive.