[CaptainZapp]

A bit of revisionist history here?

The prices charged for roaming where insanely and artificially high.

The EU commission provided multiple opportunities for the telcos to get their act together, which they didn't. Enforcing fair prices within the common market is exactly one of the missions of the EU commissioner in charge.

No wonder that the telcos hate it, but in this regard there was no competition. They all gouged their customers mercilessly until the EU put a stop on this.

[EDIT: clarification]

[fauigerzigerk]

I'm not a telco, nor do I work for one. I'm a consumer, so the reason why I hate this is not the same reason why the telcos hate it. Their interest is to make money. My interest as an EU citizen is good governance. Countries where arbitrary prices are fixed for populist reasons tend to be poor.

The competition commission should make sure that the markets aren't rigged and leave it to the market to determine the right price. I'm not saying markets always work well, but the telecoms market does.

[CaptainZapp]

  market to determine the right price. I'm not saying markets always work well, but the telecoms market does.

While I agree that this may be true on a national level I disagree that this applies when it comes to roaming.

Example? I'm charged 4 Euros (5$ +) for 1MB of data. Overseas I may be charged as much as 17EUR for a MB.

This is not a reasonable price determined by a free market, but price gouging and I can't switch to an alternative service provider.

At least - thanks to the wide availabilty of WiFi - I do have an alternative to such obscene prices.

For voice calls this is not the case. So I for one salute the EU's efforts to curb an out of control market.

Your mileage may vary, of course.

[fauigerzigerk]

I think our dispute comes down to a single question: Are high prices alone proof enough of a dysfunctional market? You seem to say that by definition excessive prices are a market failure that has to be fixed by the government. I disagree. I think the standard of proof has to be higher than that.

If governments effectively start to target profit margins for particular services it will result in massive misallocation of capital. The prices of basic services will go up and innovation will suffer, because one reason for innovating is to earn very high margins for a while until cheaper alternatives become available.