ALTO Chariman complains of excessive mobile phone charges

Iarla Flynn has hit out at the 'cosy cartel' between Digifone and Eircell/Vodafone which, he says is keeping mobile phone charges artificially high and is costing Irish businesses millions of pounds every year.

Mr Flynn is the Chairman of ALTO, the Association of Licensed telecoms Operators in Ireland.

He was speaking at the Irish Telecoms 2001 Conference in Dublin yesterday.

He said that the wholesale rates being charged by these companies to ALTO members and other fixed-line operators are excessive and do not 'stack up' when viewed against the rates Eircell/Vodafone and Digifone charge their own customers.