EC slams roaming scams

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The EC has hit back at mobile operators charging rip-off rates for international roaming.

The European Commission has created a Web site called 'Using my mobile abroad: am I paying too much?' which lets consumers compare sample roaming prices around the European Union.

For example, the site reveals that a four-minute peak-rate call from Malta to the UK can cost €3.45 if the caller's home network is O2, roaming on GO Mobisle, whereas the same call could cost €7.34 with Vodafone, also roaming on GO Mobisle.

Information society and media commissioner Viviane Reding announced the move in July, in order to raise awareness of the high costs of roaming in Europe and encourage operators to drop their prices. The EC is also investigating mobile firms in Germany and the UK following claims that their roaming fees are too high.

Reding said in a statement: "At a time when we have seen in Europe so much progress in other telecommunications services, the cost of using your mobile phone abroad is hard to believe."

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Talkback

Hello, is anyone out there with a brain... Your average person in the street already knows they are going to get ripped off when making calls from a mobile or to a mobile whilst abroad. Maybe the chav in essex might be a bit on the slow side to pick up that they are getting ripped off. We do not need another report to tell us what we already know, what we need is someone with some TEETH, to BITE the BOTTOMS of these company's and get them to realistically charge a fair price.... Come on now. They do not have to keep laying cables and paying to dig the roads up, they put the antenna's up and download the latest software to them, they may have to change the odd diode and resistor, occasionally a board, but what the mobile company's get a minute in revenue more than pays for their outlays (P.S. I am an engineer who also purchases bits for a company). It seems to be a bit of the old lets RIP the BRITISH CUSTOMER off.. One way would be for everyone not to renew their contracts, stop using their mobiles for a few months (yeah right, my daughters is glued to her hand). Unfortuantly the mobile companys have a client base that rely's on their products, So an organization that has the ability to ENFORCE PRICES, but the governments make too much money from them to worry about the poor old punter (VAT, think about what you pay, who does it go to, more you pay, the more they get).

via Facebook 6 October, 2005 12:22
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