EU regulator threatens cellphone companies' over fees
PARIS: The European telecommunications regulator plans to name and shame operators that do not cut prices for roaming text messaging and wholesale data transmission by July 1.
"I will look at all the tariffs available and put them on a Web site," the regulator, Viviane Reding, said Thursday in Paris. "That way, people will be able to see which ones have not lowered their prices."
Reding, the EU telecommunications commissioner, said she would submit regulation that could come into effect as early as the end of this year to ensure operators heeded her demands.
She asked that the price of a text message sent outside of one's home country be capped at 12 euro cents, down from the average of 29 cents in Europe and 23 cents in France. She also requested a cut in wholesale prices for data transmission roaming - surfing the Internet or downloading files while traveling outside of a home country.
Some operators charge as much as €11, or $17, per megabyte of data transmitted outside of their home country, but most charge €5 to €7, she said.
She would like to see those roaming wholesale prices cut to 35 euro cents per megabyte.
"These prices represent a cash cow, they are huge and cannot last," Reding said. "They are hampering the development of a service that could explode, and those who could create content."
Court rejects pricing suits
Deutsche Telekom's unit, T-Mobile, and three other cellphone companies have had lawsuits over pricing rejected, putting an end to their attempts to fend off regulation of the fees they charge each other for routing calls over their networks, Bloomberg News reported from Frankfurt.
The Federal Network Agency in Germany said in 2006 that it must preapprove so-called mobile termination fees, a move to enable less-expensive calls. The Federal Administrative Court in Leipzig, the country's highest court in regulation matters, said in an e-mailed statement Thursday that it agreed with the watchdog. The ruling also affects the German divisions of Vodafone, KPN and Telefónica.
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"I will look at all the tariffs available and put them on a Web site," the regulator, Viviane Reding, said Thursday in Paris. "That way, people will be able to see which ones have not lowered their prices."
Reding, the EU telecommunications commissioner, said she would submit regulation that could come into effect as early as the end of this year to ensure operators heeded her demands.
She asked that the price of a text message sent outside of one's home country be capped at 12 euro cents, down from the average of 29 cents in Europe and 23 cents in France. She also requested a cut in wholesale prices for data transmission roaming - surfing the Internet or downloading files while traveling outside of a home country.
Some operators charge as much as €11, or $17, per megabyte of data transmitted outside of their home country, but most charge €5 to €7, she said.
She would like to see those roaming wholesale prices cut to 35 euro cents per megabyte.
"These prices represent a cash cow, they are huge and cannot last," Reding said. "They are hampering the development of a service that could explode, and those who could create content."
Court rejects pricing suits
Deutsche Telekom's unit, T-Mobile, and three other cellphone companies have had lawsuits over pricing rejected, putting an end to their attempts to fend off regulation of the fees they charge each other for routing calls over their networks, Bloomberg News reported from Frankfurt.
The Federal Network Agency in Germany said in 2006 that it must preapprove so-called mobile termination fees, a move to enable less-expensive calls. The Federal Administrative Court in Leipzig, the country's highest court in regulation matters, said in an e-mailed statement Thursday that it agreed with the watchdog. The ruling also affects the German divisions of Vodafone, KPN and Telefónica.
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