Brit mobile giants to counterattack

BRITISH MOBILE phone network operators are set to mount a legal challenge against EU telecoms commissioner, Viviane Reding. Vodafone and O2 are particularly incensed.

According to a report in the Mail on Sunday an industry source has claimed that when Reding steamrollered the Eurotariff into existence, "There was no market review. No analysis. No process."

In other words, the change which saw the cost of 'roaming' - making calls overseas - drop by as much as 70 per cent, set a dangerous precedent. It also set another precedent - it's about the only time the EU and Brussels proved popular in the UK.

The UK can already claim to be a highly competitive mobile phone market. It has five operators with physical networks and plenty of MVNOs. In fact, Virgin Mobile the MVNO has more subscribers than 3.

Where the network operators may be able to win their case is by showing the EU decision made a nonsense of the UK's own industry watchdog, Ofcom. That body always consults the industry and launches its own investigations before changing the rules for operators.

The EU decision is blantantly unfair in markets such as the UK and Germany where the operators paid £ billions for their 3G licences whereas in other EU countries, the goverment simply gave them away to entrenched operators.

It's been long understood that roaming charges were a way to claw back the licence fees - especially since Ofcom recently highlighted the fact that the ARPU from mobile subsribers has recently dropped rather than increased. µ

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