WASHINGTON—Oftel, the U.K. regulatory agency, referred its proposed decrease in the cost of calling mobile phones to the European Competition Commission. The action comes after U.K. mobile-phone operators rejected Oftel’s proposed regulation to lower the price of receiving calls.
On the same day of the referral, a new study was released by U.S.-based Telegeography showing the cost of calls to mobile phones are often far more expensive than calls to fixed-line telephones. About 31 percent of incoming international calls are made to mobile subscribers in Europe, but those calls account for nearly 80 percent of international carriers’ total termination costs to the region, the company said.
“It’s not uncommon for mobile termination in Europe to cost 10 times as much as fixed-line termination,” said TeleGeography Research Director Stephan Beckert.
