Irish mobile phone users stand to collectively make savings of potentially €90m to €100m over the next five years after Vodafone, O2 and Meteor agreed to voluntarily reduce their wholesale mobile termination rates each year.
The Commission for Communications Regulation (ComReg) said that the move will deliver significant savings to the Irish market, ranging from €15m in year one and increasing year-on-year to potentially €90-100m per annum.
The regulator said that the passing through of these reductions at the wholesale level to retail customers should bring benefits to both fixed and mobile customers in terms of lower charges.
The lower termination rates come in the wake of a new EU-wide roaming regulation that reduced roaming charges by up to 70pc.
ComReg said that voluntary reductions by the three operators are set to achieve an average rate of 7.99 cent per connection by 1 January 2012.
Reductions will be implemented from 1 January each year for five years.
In the case of Vodafone and O2, the move implies reductions of 3.5pc each year for the five year period.
Meteor will reduce its mobile termination rate by 5pc on 1 January next, followed by a further 5pc in 2009, by 6.5pc in 2010 and 13pc on 1 January 2011.
By John Kennedy
