Landline phone

Here is a good news for many Europeans heading off their home. They need to pay less for calling home.  A new regulation, by the European Union,  has capped the mobile phone charges. Under the new rules a phone call from Paris to Germany will cost only a maximum of 49 cents (33p) a minute instead the previous roaming cost of about €4 (L2.70) a minute. The cost of receiving a call abroad has also been capped at 24 cents (16p) a minute. This reduction is due to the consumer-friendly policies adopted by Brussels. The “Eurotariff”  is aimed at the reduction of phone bills of nearly 490 million users living in 27 member countries of EU.

Based on the  results of an investigation that mobile phone firms made about €8.5bn (L5.7bn) profit a year from roaming charges the above  decision has been taken by the EU.

Dead line for  mobile phone companies to ask their customers to  adopt the new Eurotariff   has already expired. A Cypriot firm called Cytamobile is the only Mobile phone company who did not offer their customers while the rest of the 94 companies have already taken action.

 There is strict warning from Ms Viviane Reding, EU Telecom Commissioner,  that there would be sanctions against those who violate the law. It may be noted that twenty-one operators, including Britain’s Virgin Mobile,  two in Germany and all companies in Latvia, did not respond to the EU’s enquiry ahead of the deadline. However, regulators said that did not necessarily imply they were breaking the rules.

Many companies  including Spain’s Telfonica and Italy’s Wind have already put the new price into force in time for the holidays and  Ms Reding  had all the praise for them. However the companies legally have time  until 30 August to activate the new tariff to the users who have responded to the new offers.

Most UK operators including Orange, T-Mobile and Vodafone are not bringing in the cut rates until the end of August. There will be an automatic switch over on 30 September, for all users who has not responded to the offer.

There is a news on the actions taken by Ofcom( Office of Communications) has set regulations  that Voice over Internet Protocol services (VoIP services) that allow users to call ordinary fixed or mobile phone numbers, (such as Skype, Truphone and many others) must now make additional provision, so that consumers and other citizens are able to use them to contact the emergency services and that a high level of emergency services access is maintained for society as a whole. Ofcom considers the users of those services should be able to call 999.

In its March 2007 Statement, Ofcom decided to review its approach to ensuring maximum availability of 999 access. That was because:

·        since the 2006 consultation, there had been a rapid increase in the use of VoIP services: 10% of UK households used VoIP in the last quarter of 2006, compared to 5% in the last quarter of 2005

·        significant developments in VoIP services and technology meant they were more likely to “look and feel” like traditional fixed and mobile phone services and to replace those services for the mass market in the future;

·        there was under provision of VoIP services that allowed 999 calls: in a survey of VoIP users conducted for Ofcom in October 2006 (the October 2006 research) 64% of VoIP households surveyed said they had a service that Ofcom knew would not allow them to call 999

·        a significant proportion of VoIP consumers were confused about whether they could call 999 from their service or not: the October 2006 research found that 78% of UK households with a VoIP service that did not provide 999 access incorrectly thought that it did provide 999 access or didn’t know if it did;

·        Responses to the 2006 Consultation from the emergency services, Government, the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) and the Royal National Institute for Deaf People (RNID) expressed similar concerns to Ofcom.

This action of Ofcom may  not be a good news to some of the VoIP companies due to  testing and costs involved in qualifying for 999 emergency service access. If  they want to be considered as genuine replacements for the common landline then they  should  accept the decision of Ofcom and execute the decisions immediately. 

Traditional phone services have existed for over 100 years. Voice services using the Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) are changing the way voice services are delivered. These services normally use a broadband connection to provide voice calls using VoIP technology through a personal computer (PC) with a handset or headset, or a special adaptor connected to a traditional phone handset. VoIP services could benefit customers by reducing the cost of delivering existing services, providing new services and increasing competition in telephony and broadband. Ofcom aims to ensure that, as voice call services evolve, consumers and citizens are protected.

Option 2: require all VoIP services that allow users to make calls to traditional fixed phones or mobile phones (called type 2 VoIP services in this consultation), or to make calls to and receive calls from traditional fixed phones or mobile phones (called type 4 VoIP services), to allow users to call 999. Ofcom considers the users of those services are likely to expect to be able to call 999.

The news comes following an investigation by Ofcom which says operators that provide VoIP to landline services (such as Skype, Truphone and many others) must now make this potentially lifesaving additional provision. VoIP to VoIP only services will be exempt.