European Telecommunications Boycott: Third Objective

London, 26 May 1999

For immediate release

Internet users in fourteen European countries are joining forces to
campaign for fairer telecommunications charges. The following countries
intend to take part in a European Telecommunications Boycott [1] on
Sunday 6 June: Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, France, Greece,
Hungary, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland
and the United Kingdom.

Each Wednesday from 12 May to 2 June we in the Campaign for Unmetered
Telecommunications (CUT), the UK participating campaign, will further
explain one of the objectives of the Boycott.

The third objective is "For any remaining metered calls, abolition of
the minimum call charge so that calls are paid for solely by the time
spent connected."

We suggest that the minimum call charge, which ranges from about 3p to
5p plus VAT depending on the operator, has no justification.

Our reasoning for this is the same as we used to explain our second
objective: the original justification for a minimum call charge - that
electromechanical exchanges had to perform various operations to open
and close a call, each operation contributing wear and tear to the
equipment - is no longer relevant in the days of digital exchanges and
call management by software. Evidence from the USA, where the real costs
of providing telecommunications are available to anyone on signing
non-disclosure agreements, backs this up.

In fact, given recent revelations [2] about BT preparing to introduce
unmetered Internet access, the future launch of Internet Service
Providers with freephone (0800) numbers and the launch of screaming.net,
which is accessed by a non-geographical (0345) number which has a
different tariff structure from all other non-geographic numbers we know
of, we suggest that how we pay for telephone calls must be looked at
from first principles without preconceptions. As well as unjustifiable
payments such as the minimum call charge, existing charging and
numbering structures are breaking down, and we believe everything must
be rethought.

Notes for Editors

1. Our original press release, announcing the European
Telecommunications Boycott, is at:

http://www.unmetered.org.uk/press/pr210499.txt

2. The 'unmetered Internet access from BT' original article is at:



Contact Details

The united European campaigns' Web site:

http://www.telecom.eu.org/

UK contact:

Erol Ziya
Press Officer, Campaign for Unmetered Telecommunications
press@unmetered.org.uk

http://www.unmetered.org.uk/

+44 171 681 2831