Big mobile phone companies such as KPN, Vodafone and T-Mobile have pledged to continue charging customers by the second, economic affairs minister Maxime Verhagen said in a briefing for MPs on Monday.

Both KPN and Vodafone want to switch to a pay-per-minute which they say is often cheaper for subscribers. But Verhagen has asked the phone firms to continue offering consumers a choice.
The companies have also pledged to improve the way they keep customers informed about the cost of a phone call.
If they try to change the situation in the future, the minister told MPs he will intervene.
The practice of rounding up mobile phone calls to the nearest minute, rather than charging per second, breaks EU rules, telecoms commissioner Neelie Kroes told a tv show last November.