The EU meets today to discuss the rates of making and recieving phone calls. ( Article on Reuters.com) By doing so it would change the rates at which member states operate under. There was no decision and thus continuation of the debates and discussions are scheduled for May 2. If there is an agreement for there to be a rate, it would ensentially mean that Europeans would pay 40 euro cents ($0.54) a minute for making calls and pay 15 euro cents for recieving them. Cell-phone companies of course oppose this legislation as they see it would destroy investments and that prices are already coming down anyways without legislation.
This goes in the issue of business vs politics as business want the market to fix any problems as politicians see the problem and want to fix there and then. Good and/or bad consequences can occur but only the future can tell. Rates are being changed because people are seemingly paying to high for calls that must be made from state to state and so it is unfair for those who must always call (businesses, relatives). This causes there to be disputes and thus creates for the EU the problem of either solving them or letting them fix themselves. If business fix these prices themselves, as said that prices are falling anyways it would make a change unneccessary even inefficient as it could mean a potential lost of profits or even businesses.
