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No winners in mail dispute
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Newsletter 37
Mobile cross-network and surfing charges ‘could come down’
New prospects for cheaper international mobile phone calls, texts and internet connections have been raised by EU telecoms commissioner Viviane Reding. We understand she wants to see mobile “termination rates” (the cost of making the final connection) to be reduced to between 1 and 2 euro cents by 2012. ECTA, the European Competitive Telecommunications Association, has added its weight to a push for reductions. It argues that current mobile termination charges are excessive, making it expensive for mobile users to call other networks; are not based on costs; and distort competition. Commissioner Reding has warned that a change might result in recipients of calls being charged as well as the callers, as they are in America, but ECTA says that the overall cost of cross-network calls in Europe is higher than those in America, even taking account of this dual charging. ECTA says the unnecessary cost of users of these terminal rates over the past ten years has been over 10 billion euros. 
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