Phones For Us?
Maybe it’s just me. But on recent trips abroad I do find myself longing for the days when making a call home from a foreign country involved tracking down a phonecard and getting to grips with the public call boxes of whatever country you find yourself in.
The mobile phone has changed all that of course. Not that the mobile revolution is without its problems. As a “pay as you go” customer I have been driven to distraction in Cyprus and wasted precious time in Holland trying to top up my phone to make a call.
Having struggled to overcome the problems of topping up I’ve then had the all too common experience of spending a fortune trying to make a quick call home to assure worried relatives that I’m OK despite the apparent foolhardiness of a weekend stag trip to Amsterdam.
While the problem with topping up is probably down to my own incompetence (a fortnight in New Zealand developed into an ongoing battle against my mobile company) there is at least light at the end of the tunnel on the prices issue.
It’s always nice to see big business getting attacked on behalf of the consumer and that’s exactly what happened in February when the EU Telecom Commissioner told mobile companies to slash the price of calls and texts from other EU countries. If they didn’t do this voluntarily then the EU would step in and force a reduction.
The deadline for the voluntary price cuts was July 1st. And some progress has been made with companies slashing the cost of texts and internet access.
If the commissioner, Viviane Reding, isn’t happy with these cuts (the word from the EU is that they firmly believe roaming customers should only pay a few pence more – rather than up to 20 times more) then the companies will find their hands are forced.
All good news for you and me, of course. And not just because of the savings. If you’re driving abroad then accidents, breakdowns and myriad other problems both large and small can happen.
In the event of something going wrong your mobile phone should be a comfort and a valuable aid to finding a solution. It’s wrong – and it has been wrong for some time – that we are made to pay such ridiculous prices for the privilege of having a practical solution to potential problems at hand.
Guest Article by Tom Hall
Saturday, July 5th, 2008
My name is Alan Potts and I'm the Editor of the UK Ferry Tickets web site and Managing Director of BUYability Limited. You can connect with me or keep up to date with new posts on this blog via the following social media sites: 
