UK's Ofcom Launches Review On Termination Rates Post 2011
20 Mai 2009 - 9:13AM
Dow Jones News
U.K. communications regulator Ofcom Wednesday made a number of
proposals on how mobile termination rates, or the amount U.K.
mobile operators charge each other to connect calls on their
networks, could be set from 2011 to 2015.
"The consultation sets out six options including maintaining the
current system, which has already seen rates come down year on
year, to a system where the customer's own network is responsible
for all costs of making and receiving phone calls," the regulator
said.
Ofcom added the possible outcome of the deregulatory option -
where termination regulation will be removed from mobile operators
- is uncertain.
Current termination rate rules will expire in March 2011.
Reductions in mobile termination rates directly hurt the revenue
of mobile carriers. The European Commission telecommunications
chief Viviane Reding has pushed to reduce the rates across Europe,
arguing they don't reflect the cost of providing the service.
Company Web site: www.ofcom.org.uk
-By Erica Herrero-Martinez, Dow Jones Newswires; 44 20 7842
9353; erica.herrero-martinez@dowjones.com