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Nanny Stateism strikes again:
The European Commission is to propose legislation aimed at slashing "unproportional" charges on international mobile phone calls within the European Union (EU).EU commissioner for information society and media Viviane Reding said the executive European Commission has to propose an EU regulation after mobile telecom operators failed to respond to her calls for lower costs six months ago.
"I have warned the industry repeatedly that price must be brought down, but it seems the industry has had trouble understanding my message," Reding told a press conference on Tuesday.
Got that? She asked telecom businesses to lower their prices, and they had the gall to ignore her. So her solution is to ram through a binding "regulation" that will force the companies to limit their rates. Never mind what charges the market will bear, you've got to provide another entitlement to all those unemployed youngsters I guess.
I love this part:
"There is no way that these prices are justified," said Reding. "The regulation would ensure that operators do not charge substantially more than the actual cost."The wholesale savings of operators would then be made to pass on to consumers, she said.
Yep. Don't allow the Telecoms to make a profit, then pass the "savings" on to the people!
She dismissed fears that EU-level intervention would push operators to make up their lost revenue in the domestic market.
Of course she did. Cause and effect doesn't apply to fantasyland. Just ask the California electricity industry.
Posted by Ted at March 28, 2006 04:37 PM | TrackBack