UK regulator tells mobile phone firms to cut termination charges
16 Mar 2011
The UK's mobile phone firms were yesterday ordered to cut charges in what is being seen as a victory for The Sun newspaper.
According to telecom regulator Ofcom termination rates, the amount companies bill rivals for handling calls to their networks, would be down by 80 per cent.
The cut would be effected over four years starting 1 April.
The order means calls from landlines to mobiles would become cheaper, but not the other way round. The Sun newspaper had heavily backed the 'terminate the rate' price-cut campaign.
The big three operators-O2, Vodafone and Everything Everywhere, and also Orange and T-Mobile currently charge 4.18p a minute to connect calls from other firms, but this will change soon with charges to expected to go down to 2.66p next month and to 0.69p by April 2014.
According to experts the total cost of a mobile call could be slashed to 1p or less a minute.
However phone firms may now raise other charges, say analysts.
.webp)
.webp)
.webp)
