US Telecom Firms Blast European Mobile Connection Fees
US long distance telecom firms are pissed off about expensive mobile connection fees in Europe. Since European mobile phone service requires the caller (instead of the call receiver) to pay any mobile connection fees, callers have no idea what’s happening. However, if the person they’re calling has their phone connected to a network through a carrier other than their own, connection fees will get added to the bill… of the caller. In other words, you call someone from the US, not realizing (a) you’re calling a mobile phone or (b) that they’re outside their home network, and what you thought was a relatively cheap call may turn out to be anything but that. Part of the issue is the insanely high termination fees that carriers charge for people roaming on the network. I’d think a bigger problem is the fact that the caller has no idea how much they’re about to be charged. If that information was clearly communicated to the caller, it would force the carriers to lower the connection fees. In the meantime, US long distance carriers are pushing for government intervention, claiming that these connection fees are abusive and violate laws calling for “reasonable” fees.
