AGL 40.00 Decreased By ▼ -0.01 (-0.02%)
AIRLINK 127.04 Decreased By ▼ -0.95 (-0.74%)
BOP 6.67 Increased By ▲ 0.07 (1.06%)
CNERGY 4.51 Decreased By ▼ -0.09 (-1.96%)
DCL 8.55 Increased By ▲ 0.07 (0.83%)
DFML 41.44 Decreased By ▼ -0.04 (-0.1%)
DGKC 86.85 Increased By ▲ 0.27 (0.31%)
FCCL 32.28 Increased By ▲ 0.14 (0.44%)
FFBL 64.80 Decreased By ▼ -0.62 (-0.95%)
FFL 10.25 No Change ▼ 0.00 (0%)
HUBC 109.57 Decreased By ▼ -0.92 (-0.83%)
HUMNL 14.68 Decreased By ▼ -0.07 (-0.47%)
KEL 5.05 Decreased By ▼ -0.08 (-1.56%)
KOSM 7.46 Increased By ▲ 0.34 (4.78%)
MLCF 41.38 Decreased By ▼ -0.27 (-0.65%)
NBP 60.41 Increased By ▲ 0.32 (0.53%)
OGDC 190.10 Decreased By ▼ -4.59 (-2.36%)
PAEL 27.83 Decreased By ▼ -0.12 (-0.43%)
PIBTL 7.83 Decreased By ▼ -0.17 (-2.13%)
PPL 150.06 Decreased By ▼ -1.11 (-0.73%)
PRL 26.88 No Change ▼ 0.00 (0%)
PTC 16.07 Increased By ▲ 0.07 (0.44%)
SEARL 86.00 Increased By ▲ 7.80 (9.97%)
TELE 7.71 Increased By ▲ 0.32 (4.33%)
TOMCL 35.41 Decreased By ▼ -0.26 (-0.73%)
TPLP 8.12 Increased By ▲ 0.21 (2.65%)
TREET 16.41 Increased By ▲ 0.52 (3.27%)
TRG 53.29 Increased By ▲ 0.53 (1%)
UNITY 26.16 Decreased By ▼ -0.39 (-1.47%)
WTL 1.26 Decreased By ▼ -0.01 (-0.79%)
BR100 9,884 Decreased By -36.4 (-0.37%)
BR30 30,600 Decreased By -151.5 (-0.49%)
KSE100 93,355 Increased By 130.9 (0.14%)
KSE30 28,931 Increased By 46 (0.16%)

An adviser to Europe's top court recommended on Thursday upholding European Union rules that cap roaming prices for travellers making and receiving mobile phone calls abroad. The European Court of Justice is considering a challenge to the price caps lodged by four mobile telecom operators - Vodafone, Telefonica's O2, Deutsche Telekom's T-Mobile and France Telecom's Orange.
They launched their challenge in the British High Court in 2007. The British court then asked the ECJ whether the roaming regulation, enacted in 2007 and considered a significant victory for EU lawmakers, had a proper legal basis. "The Community was entitled to impose limits on the prices charged by mobile phone companies for roaming calls in the interests of the internal market," Advocate General Poiares Maduro said in a written statement.
"Given these excessive charges and the need for timely action, a decision to regulate retail prices was an option reasonably open to the Community." The advocate general's opinion is not legally binding, but the Luxembourg-based court usually follows such guidance.
Vodafone's shares were up 1.1 percent in early trade, France Telecom was down 0.8 percent, Telefonica was 0.5 percent higher and Deutsche Telekom was 0.2 percent firmer. The DJ Stoxx telecoms index was up 0.4 percent. The EU has extended the 2007 price caps by three years to 2012 on roaming voice calls. The EU's executive European Commission also imposed cuts this year on the cost of using a mobile phone to send text messages or surf the Web by laptop. The caps made the price of texting up to 60 percent cheaper for travellers in the European Union.

Copyright Reuters, 2009

Comments

Comments are closed.