Responding to EU Commissioner Viviane Reding’s threat to regulate mobile phone companies, Progressive Vision, the classical liberal think tank, has said that the proposals are unnecessary and likely to harm the poorest. 

Shane Frith, Director of Progressive Vision, said: 

“Threatening to regulate mobile phone companies is populist, unwarranted, self-serving, and punishes the poorest.  Charges while travelling abroad are mainly paid by businesses and the wealthy.  Demanding a reduction in these rates would lead to higher prices elsewhere – such as monthly rentals - increasing costs for those who don’t travel internationally. Of course, one of the greatest beneficiaries of such regulation would be MEPs and European Union staff who regularly cross borders. ”