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Articles tagged with: European Commission
Europe Votes to Reduce Roaming SMS and Mobile Data Costs
Yesterday evening the European Parliament, through a vote in its Industry Committee, gave strong support to the European Commission's proposals to reduce consumer roaming charges for sending text messages and downloading data in the EU. The Commission proposed in September 2008 to make sure that consumers in the EU do not have to pay more than €0.11 per roamed SMS in the EU (excluding VAT) - a proposal endorsed yesterday by the Parliament's lead Committee on the new roaming legislation. At present, SMS roaming charges in the EU are on average €0.28 per roamed SMS and can go up to over €0.80 in some countries. more
Related Tags: sms, eu, viviane-reding, roaming, text-messages, billing
European Commission Welcoms Romania's Lower Termination Rates
The European Commission says that it has welcomed the Romanian telecoms regulator's move to bring its regulation of mobile termination rates in line with the forthcoming Commission Recommendation. In the meantime, the Commission also called on the regulator to align the mobile termination rates charged by the third and fourth mobile operators in Romania with those allowed for the two largest operators. A letter from The Commission acknowledged the reasonably low level of rates for the two largest operators (5.03 eurocents per minute) and said that in the absence of objective cost differences, this interim rate should also be applied to the other operators as soon as possible. more
Related Tags: orange, sim, eu, viviane-reding, edge, vodafone, termination-rates, cosmote, mobile-termination-rates, rcs, Romania
High-speed internet access needed to revitalise Europe's rural regions
Connecting the 30% of the EU's rural population that has no high speed internet access should be a priority for achieving "broadband for all" by 2010, the European Commission said today. Improved internet connectivity is a powerful tool to stimulate swift economic recovery. The Commission has now outlined how it would use its own support programmes to boost internet networks and services in rural areas, and called on EU Member States to do the same. Good internet access can make farms and companies in rural areas, especially small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs), less isolated and more competitive through access to international markets and faster and more efficient ways of doing business. more
Related Tags: eu, viviane-reding, rural
Ryanair Offers In-Flight Phone Calls
European low-cost airline, Ryanair has launched an in-flight mobile phone service initially onboard 20 of its, mainly Ireland based aircraft. This is the first step in fitting Ryanair's entire fleet of over 170 aircraft to allow all passengers to make and receive mobile calls and texts on all Ryanair flights. more
Related Tags: eu, roaming, vodafone, aircraft, in-flight, ryanair, onair, Ireland
Romanian Telecoms Regulator Faces Action Over Independence Claims
The European Commission has opened an infringement proceeding against Romania following the recent turmoil with the telecoms regulator. The Romanian government's decision in 2008 first to remove the President of the national telecoms regulator and then, after a court ruling suspending this decision, to restructure and rename this authority represents, in the view of the European Commission, a serious violation of the regulator's independence. more
Related Tags: viviane-reding, itu, eu, Romania
Europe Calls on Bulgaria to Lower its Mobile Termination Rates
The European Commission has asked the Bulgarian telecoms regulator, the CRC, to take action to further reduce mobile termination rates that operators charge to connect the call of another operator's customer. more
Related Tags: viviane-reding, eu, termination-rates, arcep, mobile-termination-rate, mobile-termination-rates, Bulgaria
Europe to Boost Rural Broadband Internet Access
The European Commission says that it is earmarking €1 billion (US$1.3 billion) to achieve 100 % high-speed internet coverage for all European citizens by 2010 as part of the European Economic Recovery Plan. On average, 93 % of Europeans can enjoy a high speed online connection but in some countries broadband covers less than half of the rural population. more
Related Tags: nokia, rural, alcatel-lucent, ericsson, eu, satellite, oecd
KPN Profit Down 50% After Tax Gains A Year Earlier
Dutch telecoms firm, KPN has seen its full year profit halved to €1.34 billion (US$1.77 billion) due to a boost from a tax gain a year earlier - although turnover rose by 16 percent to €14.6 billion (US$19.3 billion). more
Related Tags: kpn, tax, Netherlands
Europe Considering an Import Tax on Smartphones
The European Commission is expected to present a proposal this week to charge customs duties on mobile phones, by moving ‘sophisticatedÃ' phones into a dutiable customs category. Mobile phones with increased functionality, such as GPS receivers and mobile TV would face an import tax of up to 14% under the proposals. more
Related Tags: mobile-tv, gps, eu, personal, tax, lcd
Commission issues guidelines to get Mobile TV on Europeans' mobile phones
The European Commission has taken a decisive step towards the promotion of Mobile TV services within the EU. It has published a set of guidelines for the authorisation of Mobile TV to accelerate roll-out of the service across Europe. The commercial services launched before summer 2008 in some European countries show that there is an increasing consumer demand: in the Netherlands alone, 10 000 users had already subscribed to the service at the beginning of autumn. more
Related Tags: mobile-tv, viviane-reding, eu, dvb-h