BOUYGUES TELECOM FILES COMPLAINT AGAINST EUROPEAN ALLIANCES.

• Position: Brief Article

The French operator Bouygues Telecom submitted a complaint to the European Commission on July 1, 2005 "questioning the alliances between major operators" for international roaming services, announced a spokesperson from the group on December 2. France's third operator filed a complaint with the EU Commission against Freemove, according to the French newspaper Les Echos. This commercial alliance between four of the major European telecom operators (French Orange, German T-Mobile, Italian TIM and Spanish Telefonica), which came to light in March 2004, allows subscribers to benefit from their normal services at preferential rates while abroad.

The European Commission has repeated several times that it feels that "roaming" rates in...