The Commission for Communications Regulation (ComReg) has set in train events that will place a ceiling on current mobile termination rates charged between operators.
Mobile termination charges are the wholesale rates that fixed and mobile operators pay to mobile operators for calls connected to subscribers on their networks.
These charges, ComReg says, affect consumers indirectly because they are factored in to the prices consumers pay at retail level for fixed-to-mobile and mobile-to-mobile calls.
Following a consultation process, ComReg says it is directing that mobile voice-call rates in Ireland need to be cost oriented. It has designated Vodafone, O2, Meteor and 3 as having ‘significant market power’ in the mobile termination business. As a result, it is planning to place a ceiling on current mobile phone termination rates.
The regulatory body has begun to collect accounting data from the four mobile operators to establish the efficient cost-oriented level of mobile termination rates. ComReg described the move as part of its initiative to work towards ensuring termination rates in Ireland will remain competitive by EU standards.
By John Kennedy
