Europese Commissie akkoord met het principe van betaling voor inkomend mobiel telefoongesprek (en)
The European Commission has said that it is acceptable that mobile phone users in the EU could in the future be charged for receiving calls.
"If [mobile phone] companies think this makes the offer particularly attractive, then we will not forbid it," a spokesperson for EU telecoms commissioner Viviane Reding said on Monday (16 June).
"It's up to the operators how they want to charge for receiving calls and whether they want to charge. It's the operators' decision," he added.
In an interview with the Financial Times published on Monday (16 June), Ms Reding also said she could accept such an option.
"Why not? The whole market is developing, so we should not stay on the rules that have been in place 10 years," Ms Reding told the paper.
"I think the business models are not for the European commissioner to decide. Business models are for the operators to decide," she added.
The aim of such a measure would be to reduce so-called termination charges – or the rates phone operators impose on each other for connecting calls to their networks and which currently vary from 2 to about 20 cents per minute across the EU.
The system of paying for receiving calls is currently the norm in the US and in some Asian countries, and is seen as one of the reasons behind lower termination rates there.
In Europe however, many mobile phone operators still offer a certain amount of "free calls" per month.
Ms Reding will later this month present a recommendation on the matter for public consultation.
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