Sat, 01 Jun, 2013 02:45:57 AM FTimes Report, June 1
 Housing and Communications minister, Pia Viitanen. Photo - Lehtikuva. The Housing and Communications minister, Pia Viitanen on Friday said that the initiative for removal of mobile phone roaming charges in European Union taken by the Commissioner, Neelie Kroes could be interesting, although the Finland Minister termed the issue controversial.
Earlier, On Thursday, the Digital Agenda Commissioner of EU, Neelie Kroes speaking to the European Parliament said that telephone operators should abolish roaming charges and billing customers travelling within EU area for internet use by the end of next year.
"Finland welcomes substantial cuts in roaming charges ... we must not let removal of roaming charges become a Trojan Horse that will eventually lead to higher consumer prices," the Finland Minister said on Friday.
The minister, however, said that the EU's current regulation of roaming charges has already helped people and businesses make significant savings, according to a government press release.
"If legislative amendments result in the division of the European communications market so that it is dominated by a few large telecom operators, we have gone the wrong way.
This would be detrimental for Finland, since the large operators of continental Europe are not likely to see Finland as an attractive place to set up base stations," said the minister.
Viitanen said that Telecommunications operations in Europe must primarily be developed according to the needs of the users, whether they live in a big or small Member State.
‘Therefore, we must not let a few telecom giants dictate the terms of development,’ Viitanen said, adding that the EU communications legislation must be developed in the interest of citizens.
Roaming charges have been subject to EU-level regulation since 2007. Initially, the price caps were only applicable to phone calls, but their scope has later been extended to cover text messages and data, too.
The price regulation aims to ensure that there are no significant differences in the prices of calls made and communications services used by EU citizens in EU area.
More News
|
|
Finland Times
| Tuesday, 23 April, 2024 |
|
Copyright © 2024 All rights reserved
|
||||
