Further article.
TOOTHLESS WATCHDOG Ofcom published its proposals to reduce the cost of making calls to mobile phones by 2015.
Ofcom's 155 page waffle-fest about Mobile Termination Rates (MTR) suggest a steady decrease in the amounts mobile operators charge users to call devices on their networks. The current rules that limit the MTRs will expire on 31 March 2011 and those public servants at the telecom watchdog are burning the taxpayers' oil finding out what should be done, if anything, after that period to try to control the urge of mobile operators to charge whatever they like.
The findings boil down to a table of proposed charges bringing the cost down from 4.3 pence per minute all the way to 0.5 pence per minute by 2014/15. These charges would cover Vodafone, O2, Orange, T-Mobile and 3. Other operators, presumably the virtual ones such as Virgin and Tesco, will have their prices "set on the basis of being fair and reasonable," which seems like a bureaucratic way of saying, whatever they like.
All this, supposedly, adds up to 32.7 million homes and businesses saving on making calls to mobiles. Both BT and 3
lobbied for this last year, with 258 MPs joining in on the act. The public, unsurprisingly, was quick to voice their opinions and an online petition managed to gather 114,259 signatures.
Clearly there's support for this to go through, but Ofcom's reports are generally used as kindling in the fires of mobile operator executives' offices. Ofcom is willing to hear responses, presumably from the mobile operators who are dead set against limiting another way to make money out of nothing, until 23 June 2010.
Only after then will we start to see how far mobile termination rates really might come down.
Source:-
TheInquirer.
