Mobile phone call costs could be cut

THE price of mobile phone calls may fall after a decision by the communications regulator to reduce call termination charges.

Mobile termination charges are the rates which operators, both fixed and mobile, pay to mobile operators for calls connected on their networks.

ComReg said the charges affect consumers because they are factored into the prices they pay for fixed-to-mobile and mobile-to-mobile calls.

“ComReg’s preliminary analysis of the mobile retail market in the access and call origination consultation indicates that price competition in the Republic of Ireland has stagnated over the last number of years and that the profits of O2 and Vodafone have increased over time.

“Overall this casts doubt on the assertions of the mobile operators that any profits in the termination market are competed away at the retail level,” the regulator said yesterday.

It is proposing a number of remedies.

The mobile operators said that high voice call termination charges enable them to subsidise services to their own subscribers. For example, a mobile operator may offer handset subsidies using the money generated.

ComReg said that the four operators, Vodafone, 02, Meteor and new operator 3, should each be designated with market power on their own networks and this will allow it to monitor their activities.

The regulator says it has taken into account that Vodafone and O2 have already committed to voluntary reductions in their termination rates and that Ireland's mobile termination rates are low in comparison with other EU countries.