Now mobile phone users could be charged to RECEIVE calls in the UK

 

By Sean Poulter

Last updated at 3:16 PM on 16th June 2008

 

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Mobile users could be charged to receive calls when using handsets in the UK

 

Mobile phone owners could be charged to receive calls when using handsets in the UK, it has been claimed.

Currently, consumers who take their handsets overseas can be hit with a bill of up to 19p a minute to take an incoming call.

Now a similar system could be imposed on domestic calls, according to mobile phone industry insiders.

The threat of new charges comes at a time when the mobile industry and the European Commission are locked into a war over high costs.

The Commission supports the change and claims the new charges could be more than off-set by a sharp cut in the cost of making outgoing calls.

The Telecoms commissioner, Viviane Reding, has been at the forefront of a campaign to reduce mobile phone charges, which currently deliver a multi-billion pound windfall to operators.

Last year, the Commission introduced a cap on the cost of using a phone overseas following complaints from holidaymakers and business travellers.

As a result, the cost of an outgoing call came down from a maximum of around 50p a minute to 39p, while the figure for incoming calls was cut from a similar figure to 19p.

The networks subsequently sidestepped what appeared to be a victory for the Commission and consumers by hiking other charges.

Specifically, they are cashing in by imposing extortionate tariffs to use handsets overseas for texting, emailing and accessing the web.

Miss Reding and EU telecoms chiefs, including the UK regulator Ofcom, have now launched a new effort to impose controls on these so-called roaming data charges.

The notion of being charged to receive calls will shock UK consumers, however it is the norm in the USA and some Asian countries, including China and Singapore.

On the other side of the Atlantic, it is part of a charging regime that generally leads to lower bills than those imposed on consumers in Britain and Europe.

In the United States a mobile phone network will agree to receive calls from people who are signed up to rival networks without imposing any charge.

However, in Europe every operator imposes a fee - known as the mobile termination rate (MTR) - on another network for connecting a call to one of its customers.

Controversy: Viviane Reding has suggested consumers pay even more costs for their expensive mobile phone

 

The Commission believes that scrapping the MTR would remove cost and red tape from running mobile phone services, so bringing lower charges.

It would also allow European networks to adopt the U.S. model of introducing a mix of charges for both making and receiving calls.

Commission spokesman for Miss Reding, Martin Selmayr, said that the current system means: 'Clients are paying costs that are avoidable.'

He said the Commission will present a recommendation before the end of the month to force a reduction in the MTRs the networks charge each other. This would clear the way to moving to a U.S. model.

It seems that introducing the U.S. system to Britain and Europe will be an extremely hard sell.

Many people would be unhappy at the notion of being charged to receive calls, even if this was countered by a sharp fall in the cost of making a outgoing call.

Bah

 

If the mobile phone companies dropped their prices for outgoing calls than it might be a good idea, but knowing the rip-off society, they will keep the prices up and also bring in charges to receive calls, just to get that little extra money out of people