EU seeks to slash cross-border mobile data pricing

The European Union reiterated its July 1 deadline for the mobile industry to either cut the cost of cross-border text messaging or face legislative restrictions--in addition, EU telecoms commissioner Viviane Reding said legislators will regulate the wholesale tariffs charged by operators for cross-network calls, arguing the current system distorts competition between carriers and results in consumers paying too much. According to the EU, the average cost of a text message within national borders is between 5 and 10 euro cents (about 8 to 15 cents in the U.S.), but the average cost of sending one abroad is 28 euro cents (43 U.S. cents).

Between her efforts to harmonize both text and voice termination prices, Reding is seeking to bring down consumer costs as much as 70 percent from their current levels. Needless to say, European operators are resisting regulatory intervention: "The industry is competitive, the prices are coming down, the consumer satisfaction levels are very high and the whole market is very innovative and moving very quickly," said the GSM Association's chief regulatory affairs officer Tom Phillips in an interview with Associated Press Television News. "Now is not the right time to get the bureaucracy of Brussels involved in setting retail prices."

For more on the EU mobile legislation:
- read this Associated Press article

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