In India, out-going call charges are pretty high, however, the network operator compensate by offering free incoming call facility. Wonder, how depressing it would be if you started paying for receiving calls. EU, like US, has planned to let mobile phone user face charges on incoming calls.
Viviane Reding, the EU telecoms commissioner, informed The Financial Times in an interview, that she is prepared to accept the changes and move beyond the industry’s longstanding business model. Now, the consumers have to shell out few wealth on attending an incoming call, similar to the US-style telecom model.
Besides, the Commissioner is also looking forward to cut down the cost of sending messages while the Europeans are traveling abroad and even reduce the cost of web browsing and download on mobiles while overseas.
With this proposition, mobile operators such as Vodafone and Telefónica have shown their anxiousness as she has considered steep cuts in the lucrative wholesale charges that telecoms companies impose on each other for connecting calls to their networks. It is believed that some operators are privately warning on an increase in mobile charges for customers, if the step is been taken.
When asked about the new rule, Ms Reding stated, “Why not? The whole market is developing, so we should not stay on the rules that have been in place 10 years . . . I think the business models are not for the European commissioner to decide. Business models are for the operators to decide.”
In the past, EU has restricted roaming charges on their handsets usage across Europe. For the future, Ms Reding envisions the mobile termination rate to between 1 euro cent and 2 euro cents by 2012. At present, it is 8 euro cents a minute.