Mobile termination rates continue to plummet

One of the hidden fees that impact the prices paid by wireless carriers to each other, and in turn what they charge consumers, are termination fees, or basically what an operator that has to connect a call to a customer charges the carrier from which that call originated.
According to a new report from Telecommunications Management Group, the average global mobile termination fee last year was 4.3 cents, down from the 6.1 cents in 2011, and 8.4 cents in 2009, the firm noted in previous reports. Overall, TMG said mobile termination rate charges have dropped 75% since 2005, or basically in line with the firm’s forecasts. TMG said it expects charged to continue to drop “as a result of ongoing regulatory interventions that seek to align interconnection rates with costs, although these changes will differ in magnitude among the world’s regions.”
Looking at specific regions, TMG found that the Americas had the highest fees at 6.2 cents per minute, which was more than double the 2.8 cents per minute charged in the Middle East and North Africa region. The firm also found wide variances within regions, with fees in the Asia-Pacific region ranging from .3 cents to 10.1 cents per minute.
Domestically, these fees were initially one reason why operators touted on-network calling, which encouraged customers to keep more calls on a network and thus avoided mobile termination fees. These deals also served to encourage customers to promote a carrier’s network in that they could make unlimited calls among a customer’s calling group.
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