I am very sad. I'm very sad because almost everyday I check the news to see if any progress has been made by the European Parliment to reduce Mobile Phone Roaming charges.

This May 2007 the European Parliment will vote on proposed Legislation which will require Mobile Phone Operators to reduce their mobile phone roaming charges. As far as I am concerned, this legislation cannot come in quick enough.

Every individual on holiday or business person travelling in Europe is robbed by the Mobile Phone operators everytime they make or receive a call. For businesses, this makes transaction costs far higher in Europe than for equivalent companies operating in other parts of the World. This is unfair and does not help the European Union compete in the global economy.

I am surprised at the amount of time, money and effort the Mobile Operators have put into fighting this legislation. They have come up with every argument you can think of:

If Mobile Roaming Costs come down, Local call costs will go up;
If Mobile Roaming Costs come down, the loss of revenue will cause their share prices to drop which will have a knock on effect to the economy;
If Mobile Roaming Costs come down, the Operators will have to remove the availability of free phones;

In my opinion all of these arguements are just trying to frighten the European Parliment to not vote for the legislation so they can keep making ridiculous profits.

Finally, I am surprised at the representatives of the British Government that are being easily influenced by the Mobile Phone Operator lobbyists, and are supporting their arguments in Parliment. They forget they are representing the people of Britain who voted for them.

If Mobile Phone Roaming charges come down, then more people will use their phones when travelling and the Operators will not loss out.