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		EU mobile rate cap cuts both ways Wednesday, 23rd May 2007 May 23rd - The European Parliament in Strasbourg has today voted to place a cap on the cost of mobile 'phone "roaming" -- that is, the charges for international calls. This is being spun by the EU as a huge benefit which Brussels is bringing to European phone users. Roaming costs will generally be about halved. But East Midlands Conservative MEP Roger Helmer takes a different view. He points out that roaming charges mainly affect the well-heeled regular traveller, like international executives and, indeed, MEPs. But mobile companies make a large slice of their profits from these calls. If they lose those margins, he says, they will inevitably look to increase domestic phone rates to take up the slack. The likely outcome is that well-off travellers will enjoy lower bills, while less-well-off phone users who travel occasionally or not at all will be hit with higher charges. Speaking today, Mr Helmer said: "This is a highly regressive move. We are robbing the poor to pay the rich. In my own case, I am not prepared to vote for a measure that directly benefits me at the expense of many of my constituents". More generally, several Conservative MEPs are arguing that prices should be set by markets and not by committees of politicians and bureaucrats. London MEP Syed Kamall said: "We thought that central planning, and pricing set by apparatchiks, had gone out with the Soviet Union. We shouldn't be bringing it back through the European Union".