France wants Orange, SFR and Bouygues Telecom to reduce their prices for text messages, especially after seeing that prices have stayed relatively unchanged for three years, according to a Reuters report yesterday.

Quoting a study produced by the French telecom regulator Arcep, Luc Chatel, France’s junior minister for consumer goods and government spokesman, said that  SMS sold without a subscription cost about 12 euro cents since the summer of 2004 while the volume of SMS exchanged had more than doubled since.

The study also pointed out that MVNOs that bought minutes wholesale from the three mobile operators offered SMS prices between 25% to 30% cheaper.

France’s call comes as European Union Telecoms Commissioner Viviane Reding tries to force EU operators to slash by roughly two thirds the cost of text messages for people traveling between EU countries.