T-Mobile, Vodafone and KPN raided in Dutch price-fixing probe

[beer]

Details are pretty slim at the moment, but it appears that Vodafone, KPN and T-Mobile are among the companies that have been raided by Dutch regulators in a price-fixing investigation. The country's competition authorities, NMa, swept through the carriers' offices as part of a probe into alleged "cartel agreements" exposed by whistleblowers. All three of the companies have agreed to cooperate with the investigation and have denied wrong doing but, they're starting with a dark cloud of suspicion hanging over their heads already. It was only ten years ago that the same three mobile operators were fined for illegally coordinating on pricing and fees. Obviously, it's wrong to jump to conclusions, but what are the chances these huge corporations just haven't learned from their past mistakes?

(

source)

[CODYQX4]

What do you expect? All the big cell phone companies are monopolized, at least the Dutch do something about theirs.

[shought]

It's most likely true.

A former CEO of one of the companies and a current management team member of one of the companies (they both prefer to remain anonymous) have stepped forward with details about themselves 'overseeing' price arrangements between the different companies.

This is actually something I posted about on a Dutch news site a couple of months ago. With the gigantic increase in mobile Internet subscriptions the companies felt 'forced' to increase the prices by up to 170%, which is obviously outrageous because with the huge increase in subscriptions it should only become cheaper.

So why the increase in price? Well consumers have stared using apps like WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger to communicate instead of text messaging or even VoIP, so people would get a cheap subscription with unlimited Internet, but KPN, Vodafone and T-Mobile didn't really feel like investing in more 3G/HSDPA connectivity whilst losing returns on their 'tried and tested ways' so at first they attempted to apply DPI (Deep Packet Inspection) in order to filter out VoIP (and filtering WhatsApp and similar apps was discussed as well, until the government made sure that laws were in order to prevent this). After that the prices for mobile Internet went up, making the price per MB of mobile Internet in the Netherlands the highest in Europe (by far, especially compared to other relatively wealthy countries like Germany and Sweden).

I'm generally not very happy with the way our (past) government(s) (have) handle(d) technology related business, but when it comes down to net neutrality and making sure that there is fair competition (for the consumer, especially) they've really made nothing but the right calls up until now :)

[CODYQX4]

It's most likely true.

A former CEO of one of the companies and a current management team member of one of the companies (they both prefer to remain anonymous) have stepped forward with details about themselves 'overseeing' price arrangements between the different companies.

This is actually something I posted about on a Dutch news site a couple of months ago. With the gigantic increase in mobile Internet subscriptions the companies felt 'forced' to increase the prices by up to 170%, which is obviously outrageous because with the huge increase in subscriptions it should only become cheaper.

So why the increase in price? Well consumers have stared using apps like WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger to communicate instead of text messaging or even VoIP, so people would get a cheap subscription with unlimited Internet, but KPN, Vodafone and T-Mobile didn't really feel like investing in more 3G/HSDPA connectivity whilst losing returns on their 'tried and tested ways' so at first they attempted to apply DPI (Deep Packet Inspection) in order to filter out VoIP (and filtering WhatsApp and similar apps was discussed as well, until the government made sure that laws were in order to prevent this). After that the prices for mobile Internet went up, making the price per MB of mobile Internet in the Netherlands the highest in Europe (by far, especially compared to other relatively wealthy countries like Germany and Sweden).

I'm generally not very happy with the way our (past) government(s) (have) handle(d) technology related business, but when it comes down to net neutrality and making sure that there is fair competition (for the consumer, especially) they've really made nothing but the right calls up until now :)

That's precisely the way I see it. The internet could and should kill off conventional cell phone companies/their proprietary infrastructure. They can charge you anal rape prices to make a call/data overseas (see iPhone bills, thousands for a few gigs of data). They do this because they can, and the few competetors do as well. The second AT&T said they were ending unlimited data, I knew it was over. Verizon wiped it out as expected. The carriers want to keep control over these mobile devices, when internet use and cloud computing take over, so all internet access can be pay per use (which they will gouge us). That still leaves conventional phone calls. all can be done via the internet via common infrastructure as opposed to special CDMA/GSM phone specific stuff. They try to stop VOIP and failing that they want to make data use expensive enough to get all the lost money.

I seriously pay $30 dollars for Unlimited Data, another $30 for texting, and $40 for voice as the most basic of the charges. All that crap goes over the same f*cking connection, and they have the audacity to say, go to a limited data plan if you want to Tether but just being allowed to do so is an extra $20 dollars. Don't like it, you're screwed as your phone is carrier locked and all other carriers do the same crap.

This is why I regret the cloud computing trend. All the big companies want it because they can take all the data centers across the world, put them in a few places and slash millions of jobs that had to be done on site (their Admins work the infrastructure you needed your own for and run the databases, give you VMs, etc). All devices become tablet crap that has a 3G connection, which of course only the phone companies offer, and they cap you and bleed you dry.

This whole trend is just a way to keep screwing us over and it should be considered a crime against humanity. We could make the interent in the USA cheap enough that the poorest of poor familes (excluding those who are on the streets, which is happening more and more as the shit hits the fan), but we keep it in the hands of a monopoly where we have no choice. I can literally choose only Time Warner for an ISP at home and their service is so bad that I want to personally bash the CEOs head in for charging so much for the crappiest service I've ever seen a company give, which of course they could not get away with in a real market.

Of course all these companies claim we aren't in a free market and blame regulations, but their actions are why it isn't a free market. One of the most disgusting things I heard is Apple critizice Obama for not being "business friendly" enough, because it was cheaper and easier to run a factory in China, when you hear about the suicide rate and conditions in their factories. We will all be slaves in sweatshops, and they are winning, they should all burn in hell.