A group of European Parliamentarians has asked their colleagues to reject plans to cap SMS and data-roaming charges across the continent. The EPP-ED group, a center-right alliance of 288 members from the European People’s Party and the European Democrats, met in Brussels this morning to debate telecom commissioner Viviane Reding’s proposal to cut data charges from €2.05 per megabyte to a nice round €1 per megabyte at the wholesale level. Her proposal would also reduce SMS rates from an average €0.29 to €0.11 and would start billing roamed calls per second not per minute.

Europe’s national telecom ministers agreed to the plan in November. But UK Conservative MEP Syed Kamall, who is responsible for investigating the matter for the EPP-ED and who has written a position paper for the parliament’s internal market committee, said the committee should throw the plan out: “Regulation should always be an absolute last resort, particularly when the technology and applications for mobile phone data are still developing at a fast pace. We need to create an environment that brings prices down for everybody, and often price caps and blunt regulation have unintended consequences.”

Instead, Kamall proposed alternatives including establishing a pan-European “exchange” for wholesale voice, SMS and data traffic. Release.

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