16 July 2008

KPN overcharging for text messages
"Tourist who sends text messages ripped off," is today's front-page headline in the mass-circulation newspaper De Telegraaf.

Many Dutch people who return from vacation are greeted by a bill of hundreds of euros from their mobile providers.

The newspaper writes that "According to the European Commission, the Netherlands largest mobile telephone provider KPN is no more than a 'swindler.'

The company charges its customers extravagant rates for sending text messages from outside the country."

The company was found to charge the highest rates in Europe – EUR 0.55 for an SMS for regular customers and EUR 0.75 for prepaid subscribers.

The average rate in Europe is EUR 0.29, which Brussels still considers too expensive.

The commission can provide subscribers with some consolation because it is planning legislation which will forbid telecommunications providers from charging more than EUR 0.15 per SMS as of the beginning of 2009.

"Brussels says it finds a hard time explaining to EU citizens why the 2.5 billion text messages sent across the border each year cost more than ten times the rate SMS messages sent within the country."

Try and try again
Justice Minister Ernst Hirsch Ballin's plans to change one of the "guiding principles" in Dutch - and not only Dutch - legal jurisdiction, that a suspect can be tried only once for the same crime, is again discussed in the newspapers.

He has now sent the text of the new legislation to various committees of legal experts who will review the proposal and then send back their advice. De Volkskrant writes that trying a suspect once for the same crime is "a nearly sacred part of our legal system".

The Public Prosecutor's Office in Rotterdam asked the justice minister to change the rules in light of a murder case from 2001.

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