Mobile companies threaten price hike

MOBILE PHONE companies have threatened to jack up the price of domestic calls if the European Union forces them to stop charging an arm and a leg for global roaming.

The European Parliament is thinking about capping roaming charges for mobile phone calls made abroad within the EU, by imposing a ceiling at 40 euro cents (54 U.S. cents) per minute for an outgoing call and 15 euro cents (20 U.S. cents) per minute for an incoming call.

However the GSM Association, which represents more than 700 mobile phone operators around the world, has thrown its toys out of the pram at the idea and threatened to stop the rate of the decrease of the domestic tariffs.

A spokesperson said that operators would have to sit back and take a good hard look at holistically how they might recoup their charges, and the knock-on effect could be potentially in the domestic market.

She cited a study conducted for the industry which said the proposed EU legislation would cut operators' annual retail revenues from roaming by more than half, from 5 billion euros to 2.4 billion euros ($6.8 billion to $3.3 billion).

The spokesperson said it was like communism to force telephone companies to stop charging what they like. Since most countries would be facing outrageous prices for domestic calls if there had been no regulation, the level of sympathy they are likely to see from ordinary users is next to nothing.

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