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3 First to Sign Agreement of the Swedish Consumer Agency

19th October , 2004

Europe : Compared to people in other countries Swedes seldom talk on their mobile phones. The main reason for that is the expansive mobile calls. Now the mobile operator 3 wants to change all that. To make it easier for consumers to understand what they pay for, 3, as the first mobile operator, signs The Swedish Consumer Agency’s agreement against unpredictable prices, complex conditions and misleading commercials. According to 3s estimates Swedish pre-paying customers risk paying an overprice of approximately 20 billion SEK, if nothing is done. 3’s goal is to contribute to lower prices that enable consumers to afford more and longer mobile calls.

According to official statistics Swedes in general talk on their mobile phones 373 minutes a month. Most of the calls are made in the evening over the landline network. But if the prices were lower it is likely that more people would make their calls when ever they wanted to, without being victims of a difficult price structure.

- It is ridiculously expensive to make mobile calls in Sweden. To me it seems totally insane that pre- paying customers, who are actually paying the operators in advance, are punished with even higher prices. If the prices for mobile calls were lower I’m sure that more people would make their calls on occasions they chose themselves, says Helena Westin, Nordic Marketing Director at 3.

In the estimates made by 3 it is assumed that Swedes would like to use their mobile phone when making about half of all their telephone calls (200 minutes). In that case Sweden’s 4 875 000 pre-paying mobile customers will next year be forced to pay an average overprice of 1,74 SEK/minute for their mobile calls. In other words, each pre-paying customer will in 2005 pay about 4176 SEK too much. This is equal to a trip to the Canary Islands, 60 movie tickets or a daily evening paper for 17 months. All together will the Swedish pre-paying mobile customers pay an overprice of approximately 20 billion SEK.

According to Helena Westin, the high mobile prices are an effect of the complexity in the market that makes it difficult to understand for consumers. In order to lower the prices and solve the issues of the mobile market 3, last night, was the first company to sign the agreement of The Swedish Consumer Agency.

According to the agreement the signing party is in it’s marketing committed to clearly describe the conditions of contract, the minimum total cost and in which areas the operator has coverage.

- Our hope is that other operators will follow our example and sign the agreement of The Swedish Consumer Agency, so that we together can clean up the mobile market. We need to do whatever we can in order to make this market more comprehensible and price worthy for consumers so that more people can afford to make more mobile calls, says Helena Westin.

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