The trouble is that all of the European mobile network operators, under the stewardship of the GSMA, are still steeped in their 1980's state-run monopolistic mindset. They barely, if at all, grasp the notion of low-price/high volume, although the evidence is staring them in the face.

An example; SMS - at the beginning this was 60p a pop. Then Genie launched under Cellnet (as O2 was) charging 10p a message and including bundles in their £10 per top up. Overnight SMS use, as we now observe it, was born and the other networks had no option but to reduce their per-SMS cost to 10p. The rest is history. Absolutely millions has been made from SMS using otherwise near-completely redundant bandwidth that has to be there anyway! SMS takes a free ride and generates revenue, how bad is that?

We see massive increases in mobile use, usurping landline usage for the first time, because of the bundling of minutes into contracts. and as the "value" of these increases so does usage. We cannot be very far from "unlimited" calling.

Yet for international roaming there is still this incredible corporate luddite mindset that says charge a premium for anyone who travels to another country. They have had to be regulated to bring their charges down - and corresponding use, and revenue, has gone up. But still, in spite of and in the face of these revenue and usage improvements they still have to be dragged [by regulation] kicking and screaming all of the way.

What the mobile network operators need, if they do not already have, is a facsimile to the Bank's FX-Net. This is a means whereby they nett off their bi-lateral transactions and only pay each other the difference at the end of the day. It is a pointless exercise in bureaucracy tit-for-tat charging cross-border.

And at the end of the day, what are they really charging for? These are sunk costs in establishing the networks. They have to be there to be there! Its not as if they've had to lay in special infrastructure to allow us to roam. Because, like all telcos, they have to have international routes to even exist. It would be non-viable to have a mobile phone network that did not have routes to all of its peers!