Texting teens 'ripped off' says EU chief

Source: Agencies  |   2008-7-16  |     NEWSPAPER EDITION

MOBILE phone operators are ripping off text-messaging teens, the EU telecoms chief said yesterday as she called for a cap on the price of texting abroad.

EU Telecoms Commissioner Viviane Reding said she wanted to see roaming fees for text messages fall by up to 70 percent and will put forward rules in October to cap charges.

She also warned that the EU may take action on "heavily overpriced" mobile Internet fees if companies don't do more to slash these in the next few months.

Europeans traveling outside their home nation send some 2.5 billion text messages every year ?? paying 10 times more than they do at home.

Reding said some 97 percent of the price of each message is "pure revenue for the operator" wrung out of the three-quarters of young people who text when abroad.

"We are punishing our young students, our young travelers, and that is completely unfair," she said.

Sending a text abroad costs 0.29 euro (46 US cents) on average across the EU - but that can climb to 0.80 euro for Belgian customers.

Telecoms regulators from the EU's 27 nations want to see that fall to between 0.11 euro and 0.15 euro for each message.

Reding said she wanted to see prices at the lower end of that scale - and eventually see the cost fall to around 0.04 euro a message.

Her attack on text messages comes just a year after the EU capped the costs of voice calls made and received abroad. Costs for calls have dropped by up to 60 percent since last summer.

The European Commission said a new Website listing roaming charges showed wide differences in what people are charged across Europe. A Swedish tourist in Spain would pay up to 0.40 euro to text home while a British friend could be charged as much as 0.63 euro.

More cautious

Reding said only one mobile phone operator in Austria had bothered to respond to her call to bring down prices by July 1.

She was more cautious about taking action on data services which charge BlackBerry or 3G phone users a megabyte, or MB.

Prices for using the mobile Internet from abroad range widely from 0.25 euro an MB to over 16 euros an MB, the EU said.

She said she'd like to see charges in the long-term drop to around 1.18 euros an MB, as Denmark's telecoms agency suggests.

Regulators warned that many customers see "bill-shocks" because they don't know how much they are being charged.