Reding ticks off UK regulator

SHOWING HER determination that the European Commission should dictate cheap prices for mobile calls throughout the EU, Viviane Reding has scolded Ofcom for allowing high termination charges on 3G calls.

The EU telecommunications minister is constantly blocking the operators' efforts to claw back the billions of pounds they spent acquiring 3G licenses from the UK government.

One of their favourite money spinners is the high cost of making and receiving mobile calls while 'roaming' abroad. Now she's targeting call termination charges which is the money operators charge each other to interconnect calls.

Reding's worry is that if Ofcom allows these charges to be high, it will set a dangerous precedent across the rest of Europe.

The fact that the operators overpaid for 3G is no concern of hers. "The Commission believes that such costs [termination fees] should not be calculated on the basis of prices paid during the spectrum auctions which in today's context are inflated," she told the FT.

Considering Reding apparently believes the operators should only have paid one third of the money extracted by the UK government, what's she going to do? Tell Gordon Brown to pay the operators back around £14 billion? Somehow that isn't going to happen. µ

L'INQ
Financial Times
Write to Viviane R