The British government is the lapdog of the mobile phone companies. Who says so? EC Commissioner for information society and media, Viviane Reding.

"I made a telephone call with Margaret Hodge that the British people might become very upset if they find out what was happening behind closed doors," said Reding on the Channel 4 Dispatches programme last night.

Hodge, now culture minister, was at the time of the call from Reding, an industry minister with responsibility for telecommunications.

In December 2006 Hodge vetoed a measure proposed by Reding aimed at putting a limit to roaming charges. At that time it cost 94p per minute to make an international call, estimated to be 400 per cent more than the cost to the operators.

"The Minister (Hodge) is playing, 100 per cent, the spokesman for the mobile phone industry," said Reding.

Everyone knows that the cost of making a phone call in Europe is prohibitively high and this turns out to be the fault of the British government acting at the behest of the wireless telecommunications operators.

"The prices were extraordinarily high 10 times, 15 times, 20 times higher than local national prices", said Reding, "but there was no difference in the cost of connecting the calls. I saw also the cost for the operators was roughly 10 cents for a call and what they were charging was 400 per cent more than the cost."

Brussels proposed 27p per minute for making an international call and 10p for receiving one. After lobbying from the wireless companies this was upped to 38p and 17p.

"The British government was very clearly doing a policy in favour of the telephone industry", said Reding.

See also: Mannerisms, the blog of David Manners. Updated twice daily, it's the distinctive, entertaining, authoritative and never dull commentary on the semiconductor industry, from someone who knows...