The Big City

So, let’s get this straight. Europe’s mobile phone operators were charging extortionate fees for calls made and received while people were abroad. The European Commission asked them to reduce their outrageous prices and they argued that people should be grateful that they had already reduced prices, by 8% last year. Gee, thanks guys. But the EC wasn’t impressed. It threatened to pass a law forcing the operators to charge the same prices whether or not customers were roaming. Surprise, surprise, the operators suddenly found that they could actually make much bigger savings. The boss of T-Mobile even had the cheek to say that this shows “that market forces in the mobile industry function and do not need regulatory intervention”. Somehow I don’t think that’s the conclusion most people will be drawing.