TEXT MESSAGE CHARGING

Early day motion 1706, tabled 17 September 2003 by Brian H Donohoe (Labour). Signed by 36 members.

That this House notes with deep concern that the cost of sending a text message has risen by 30 per cent. to an average of 10 pence per message over the last four years; further notes these charges are even higher for text messages sent to premium rate services such as polls, quizzes and sports information and, that with 40 million messages sent each year, this has sent the value of the sector from ú100 million to ú1.7 billion since 1999; is concerned to learn the cost incurred by the phone companies of handling these messages is less than a penny; commends the works of the telecommunications regulator, OFTEL, and other competition authorities who recently ordered a reduction in cross network call charges earlier this year; and calls on OFTEL to launch a further investigation into the rising costs of sending text messages, to ensure a fair pricing strategy has been adopted by the mobile phone companies and that the rising cost is not as a result of the income lost through the enforced reduction in call charges by the regulator.

Signatures by party: Labour 19, Liberal Democrat 12, Scottish National Party 2, DUP 1, Independent Ulster Unionist 1, Labour/Co-operative 1.