This really does seem to be an unstoppable campaign. I can’t see how the mobile companies can withstand the onslaught from the ‘Terminate the Rate’ campaign.

Already the petition has accumulated over 114,000 signatures (some of them I hope from my Tweets about it @Jasmine) but also 260 MPs (just under half the MPs in the House) have signed an Early Day motion and there are over 60 partners on board (including Moneymagpie.com). The campaign is growing and it will increase in momentum.

This is one of the great things about the power of social networking and the internet generally. You can get the message out to consumers and consumer-power - the power of numbers - forces change.

It has to be done in the West in order to help developing countries too. A South African friend recently went back home and was appalled to find how expensive mobile phone tariffs are over there. Like many developing countries, South Africa now has a massively high proportion of inhabitants who only have a mobile phone. Landlines are rare and getting rarer. So the population is largely dependent on their mobiles for most of their communication needs.

Guess what? The mobile phone companies have run an unofficial cartel for years meaning that average mobile bills are way higher than those in this country (about 5 rand for a two-minute call in a country where the average salary is 16,000 rand per year and there are 13 rand to the £1).

The last president, Mbeki, was far too pro-corporates to want to rock the boat by demanding more competition and cheaper rates for his people. The current president, though, Jacob Zuma who seems a little better (at least he’s willing to admit that they have an AIDS problem, which is a big improvement on the last one) has forced mobile providers to meet with him to discuss better pricing structures.

Mobile is the communication method of choice for the developing world even more than the West. The more we fight for consumer rights here, the more it has to help other parts of the world who can point to what is happening here and use that as strength for their argument. Any form of over-charging or unfairness in mobile pricing must be challenged and reversed. We rely on mobile communication far too much to allow ourselves to be sold down the river!