SPIEGEL: After the European Council of Ministers decided that the rates for international mobile phone conversations should be drastically lowered, the responsible committee of the European Parliament reached the same conclusion last week. When will international calls become cheaper for mobile phone users?

Dirks: We at E-Plus have long called for lower rates, but our efforts were always blocked by the resistance put up by the industry giants. I hope the rates will now drop in the fall, at the latest. After all, when the conclusive EU resolution is passed in June, the companies will still have a few weeks time to implement the decision. But we will not wait until this deadline. We will offer lower rates at our own risk before the deadline.

SPIEGEL: What will the new rates look like?

Dirks: They will be somewhere in the region of between €.40 and €.50 per minute for outgoing calls and between €.15 and €.20 for incoming calls -- to which will be added the relevant sales tax.

SPIEGEL: Are the EU's tough measures what the industry gets for its inflexible stance?

Dirks: Clearly, yes. The industry giants took what they could get for years. Competition simply failed in this respect. Politicians now have to draw the line for the industry giants on the telecommunications market, just as with the energy market.

SPIEGEL: How hard is your industry hit by the decision? The industy association claims that prices of €.65 per minute are the bottom limit if profitability is to be retained.

Dirks: Those are figures provided by lobbyists; they have little to do with reality. We can't afford to give anything away for free either, but profit margins of between 30 and 45 percent show that mobile phone companies are still earning well. And, principally, the EU decisions will not change much in that respect. International calls only account for between 10 and 20 percent of the income from phone charges, after all.