Who pays 5 USD/minute calling Australia?

How was the Trading Fragmentation seminar with Marcus Evans last week?
Olof: It was excellent! Among other things the topic of Free Market Data was raised. I believe there were some really interesting opinions related to this issue. Following the formidable explosion in transactions/quotes that need to be processed, one question is how to mitigate this problem, as not all participants will be able to join the Tech arms race.

What do you think will happen?
Olof: The jury is still out there and I wouldn’t be surprised if we see some initiatives from the incumbents trying to keep the transaction flow down, even with quotation fees.

What do you think should be done with the lack of a Consolidated tape?
Olof: At Burgundy we suggest that the pre-trade and post-trade data should be split up and that regulators step in and force a European solution to the post-trade feed by law rather sooner than later. I also believe that the technology already is in place and there are several excellent vendor firms who could handle this on a cost-sharing basis. There will always be a need to buy high-performance pre-trade data directly from venues, but wrapping the crucial post-trade data together with this is simply unfair and hinders the proliferation of competition.

Don't you think that the stakeholders will resolve this on their own?
Olof: Burgundy estimates that the European market for real-time data is worth at least 1 billion USD annually in fees – so anyone suggesting that the current stakeholders will resolve this on their own is very naive. Or, as a very influential HFT participant stated “Who wants to pay 5 USD per minute calling Australia after Skype?”