Partner Article

European phone cost reductions will help business

By Mike Odysseas, Managing Director, Odyssey Systems

Travelling in the EU often begins, when you switch on your mobile a few moments after landing, with bad news. Delivered via text, it tells of how much you are going to pay, not only every time you make a call, but when someone calls you. The inflated price of texts and, in this Smart Phone era, data, are also included to make your landing one which is not as happy as could otherwise have been the case.

However, new rules being ratified by the European Council are set to bring the cost of doing business on the continent down.

The European Parliament changes will allow people to sign up for a second, alternative provider for their roaming services elsewhere in the EU if their domestic provider is charging too much, take force on July 1.

They will also put new retail price ceilings on charges. Initially, this will see outgoing calls reduced to €0.29 per minute, incoming calls fall to €0.08, text messages capped at €0.09 and data roaming limited to €0.70 per megabyte.

Further reductions will come into play by 2014, taking another €0.10 off per minute outgoing calls, €0.03 off incoming calls, €0.03 off texts and €0.50 off the per megabyte data charges.

It is great news for travellers that these price changes will come in, in time for the summer holidays, but even better news for commerce.

We live in a world which has, for many years, become smaller, which is great for business, but the high cost of mobile phone communications across Europe has not reflected this. That is now changing.

Businesses which send representatives across the continent on a regular basis will see a significant Reduction in costs. However, we should remember that even these costs can largely be avoided with modern technology, such as VoIP, and the use of wi-fi zones, making video conferencing free.

We even have a member of staff who is able to work from home in Scandinavia because of the way modern technology makes communications easier. Additionally, Odyssey sets up clients to use local Wi-Fi to allow UK pricing on texts, e-mails and calls. Even with these new pricings, a client could still end up with a nasty surprise when the bills come.

Whatever the problems in the Eurozone, trade on the continent is a fact of life for many businesses, so action which acknowledges this by the European Parliament is very welcome.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Mike Odysseas .