« Koka soppa på en spik | Main | Ett universum skapat av människohand »
August 13, 2006
Damned if you do, damned if you don't
A rumour recently I heard relates to the article I wrote about Commissioner Viviane Reding's effort to force mobile phone firms to stop charging travellers a higher price for making calls abroad.
Seems that before the whole discussion about the Commission taking action, the mobile phone operator Vodafone actually wanted to eliminate the roaming costs, but was blocked by the Commission. The Commission feared that Vodafone by eliminating the roaming costs would gain a far too large share of the European market for their tastes. That is why Vodafone instituted the Vodafone passport alternative mentioned in the article.
I do not know the veracity of this rumour (I hope you readers can help me out on confirming it). But it sure sounds similar to far too many cases recently, where some company gets too successful and gets sanctioned for diminishing competition, or alternatively the Commission gets upset of a too static and concentrated market because no company is allowed to take the lead, so they punish the market collectively with a scheme like Reding's.
Posted by Waldemar at August 13, 2006 09:14 PM