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UK aims to clean up "termination charges" for mobile

Normally, the main pressure on British mobile operators comes from European regulators, primarily Commissioner Reding; but the latest threat to their profit margins has been signalled by a UK competition body.

A report by Tom Bergin quoted Britain's competition Commission as predicting a forced reduction in the fees mobile operators can charge other telcos when connecting to one of their subscribers.

Bergin says that the Commission was responding to an appeal by telco giant BT - lodged with the main regulator, Ofcom - and that the commission said:

"Matters raised in an appeal by telecoms company BT Group (BT.L) to regulator Ofcom were well founded. As a result the CC has determined that the charges for connecting to the O2, Orange, T-Mobile and Vodafone networks should be reduced to 4.0 pence per minute by 2010/11,"

Ofcom had decided that they should fall to 5.1 pence per minute by 2010/11, while the charge for connecting to the H3G network should be reduced to 4.4 ppm by 2010/11. "That is 1.5 ppm less than the price control under Ofcom's decision," said Bergin's report.

The matter will be decided by the Competition Appeals Tribunal, which won't meet again until February.