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Vodafone cries out on behalf of the poor (and themselves we think)

In a scathing response to European Commissioner Viviane Reding’s report on the mobile industry in Europe, Vodafone claims 40M million users, most of them “poor” pay as you go customers, may have to cancel their mobile service if her proposed changes to call termination charges go into effect. Termination charges are the fees mobile operators charge each other (and land line companies) for connecting to their networks. Currently mobile operators in Europe charge each other an average of 8 cents per minute. Reding proposes a reduction of these fees to 1 to 2 cents per minute. A reduction in fees is usually perceived as a good thing except these fees account for 15 to 20% of an operators revenue. That’s a good chunk of change for the mobile operators and the loss of that guaranteed revenue source has them, (well, at least Vodafone) shaking in their boots and spouting forth rhetoric.

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6 comment(s) for this post.

  1. On Sep 3, 2008 @ 9:20 am, Jdslim Said:

    Wow, if the number one wireless privider in the world is shaking in their boot about this i really have to wonder how this might effect all providers worldwide. We all know that Vadaphone has a huge investment with Verizon in the states and that T-moble parent company is a german company.

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  2. On Sep 3, 2008 @ 9:32 am, Lucas Said:

    Fair deal: Wireless providers concentrate on their own customers, and pay very little termination fees to other providers. So they get to keep more revenue from their own network. If Voda noticed that more customers call into their network instead of from it, maybe they should think about how to motivate their own customers to initiate more calls!

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  3. On Sep 3, 2008 @ 9:35 am, EPS Said:

    Vodafone is #2, China Mobile has more proportionate customers than them. (Though Vodafone owns a small part of China Mobile, so I guess you could consider it part of the Vodafone sphere of influence)

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  4. On Sep 3, 2008 @ 10:09 am, Jdslim Said:

    I stand corrected.

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  5. On Sep 3, 2008 @ 10:28 am, MadMike Said:

    They will just raise their prices and snub their noses as the government.

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  6. On Sep 3, 2008 @ 1:26 pm, Galvatron Said:

    wich of course maens thy will goto a carrier with lower rates then you have tge preice ware consumer complaint EU spiral the real question is who’s the real benefiting party when the dust settles?

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