OXFORD, United Kingdom-Last July the European Commission identified 14 cases of excessive or discriminatory pricing of interconnect rates between fixed and mobile operators. In-depth investigations were launched, and half of those investigations have been closed or suspended following a flurry of rate-cutting and pressure from national regulators over the past few months.
Telecom Italia and Spain’s Telefonica have reduced their charges for terminating mobile-to-fixed calls. Telecom Italia now charges the same call-termination fee to fixed and mobile operators, resulting in a 40-percent savings for the mobile operators. The commission has ended its inquiries.
Telecom Eireann, Ireland, also has satisfied the commission by reducing its retention on fixed-to-mobile calls by more than 50 percent during peak periods.
National telecommunications regulators in the United Kingdom, Germany and the Netherlands are applying pressure to reduce the interconnect rates charged by British Telecommunications plc, Deutsche Telekom and KPN, respectively. The commission therefore has suspended its own investigations for now. Future action is not ruled out.
Investigations continue into the retention applied to fixed-to-mobile calls by P&T Austria, Telecom Italia, Deutsche Telekom, Belgacom and Telefonica. In the two latter cases, the commission said it is “currently reviewing information of a nature that may justify the conclusion of both inquiries.”
On the licensing front, all member states of the European Union now have issued at least two GSM 900 and one GSM 1800 (Global System for Mobile communications) cellular licenses. But the commission is expressing concern about the time scale for phasing out the analog networks in some countries.
