The Case of a Young Italian Student

Fighting for Fair Mobile Costs

In Italy, you could use only 8 out of 10 Euros of any mobile phone credit bought. The other 2 Euros go directly into the company's pockets. But since March 2007, thanks to Matteo D'Ambra and his action, the big Italian mobile companies say hello to easy money


By MARCO RICIPUTI
from Rome, ITALY


Black pointed beard and glasses: Matteo D'Ambra is a 23 year old student of Politics, in Naples, the chaotic Southern Italian city. Hard traveler, he reaches a weird "Italian record": his country was the only one in the whole Europe where consumers have to pay a sort of "recharge fee" every time they buy prepaid mobile credit. "Why?" -he asked. Finally, he decided to face alone the Italian mobile company and won.

In Italy, you could use only 8 out of 10 Euros of any mobile phone credit bought. The other 2 Euros go directly into the company's pockets. But since March 2007, the big Italian mobile companies say hello to easy money. The amount of the recharge fee market was impressive: in 2006 mobile companies gained 1,7 billion Euros. The Italians love mobile phones: 44,9 million people out of 58 million own one and 90% of them buy mobile credit instead of having a subscription. According to Federconsumatori, an Italian consumers association, the average annual cost for every Italian family is up to 260 Euros.

Matteo D'Ambra was getting bored more and more, day after day and worked hard to change this unequal situation. He complained to many consumer associations but the answer was a Greek chorus: "We can't fix the problem, sorry". He knocked on the door of the Agcom, the Italian authority depute to guarantee the free market. No answer.

Brussels care

He couldn't find the support of any official organization so, in April 2006, he launched an online petition against the recharge cost. The feedback is unexpected and amazing: more than 820.000 people signed the petition. It is a success, partly due to Beppe Grillo, a famous Italian comedian and the owner of the most read Italian blog that support the campaign.

In the meanwhile, he also complained to Brussels and, surprise, the European commission wrote back in few days: "Thank you Mr. D'Ambra", you can read in the letter posted on the Italian student's blog, "the European Commission has asked the Italian authorities for more information about the case you denounced".

So, Brussels cares. And the Italian authorities launched an inquiry immediately. "Better late than never", we say in Italy: in more than 10 years nobody will realize the state of the Italian mobile market! Finally, even the government and the Italian minister, Peirluigi Bersani, decided to fix the problem and the recharge cost has been abolished in the early March 2007.

Other anomalies remain

Recharge cost makes history but other anomalies remain in the mobile market. First of all, the high cost of international roaming. But, in this case, the problem is spread in the entire European Union and often the European commission is charged of inactivity, because of the lack of protection of the consumer rights. Another interesting paragraph in the "Italian mobile style" is the "get an answer and pay for it": every time you call someone, if he answers, you have to pay a fixed amount. It is not so funny for consumers: when you call, the connection may collapse due to the poor service of the mobile companies but you pay in any case if the call has been accepted.

But some voices rise up against Matteo D'Ambra. Trade unions are afraid about the consequences on employment: workers could be fired because of the shock faced by the mobile companies. But Matteo D'Ambra doesn't care and he is going ahead with the crusade for fair mobile cost: "mobile companies" - he says - "have to give back all the money gained illegally in the last ten years. A pool of lawyers is studying the problem and we are optimistic". The lesson is that, even if Brussels looks away from the citizen sometimes complaining about certain issues may be a good idea.