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
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