TPSA will not alter revenue forecast (Poland)
Poland’s dominant telephone operator, Telekomunikacja Polska SA has stated that it won’t need to revise its revenue forecast following a proposal from the telecommunications regulator to cut mobile termination rates.
Polish telecommunications regulator UKE proposed that the country’s three largest mobile operators cut their MTRs by 42% and has given them a month to respond.
UKE proposed that the regulated mobile termination rates be cut to $0.0339 a minute from US$0.05 a minute.
According to the company, while making their estimates regarding 2011 revenue, they took into account MTR being cut to between US$0.02 to US$0.05.
According to TPSA, the regulator’s proposal is a motivator for all operators to complete the negotiations as soon as possible.
UK MTR to drop to €0.005 per min by 2015
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Deduction in mobile termination rates in the UK has been proposed by Ofcom, a regulatory body in UK, to £0.005 (€0.005) per minute by March 2015. O2, Orange, T-Mobile, and Vodafone have been proposed to get gradual cuts in the MTRs from £0.043 at present, and 3UK from £0.046.
The price for new entrants and smaller players will be set on a fair and reasonable basis. According to the UK regulator, new rates are necessary to ensure new, smaller, communications providers that have entered the market since it last set rates in 2007 are able to compete on price, adding that reduced rates should also mean cheaper calls for consumers.
The rates of UK’s leading mobile operator will come in line with smaller player’s rates thus encouraging other firms to enter the market. 12-15% of European mobile operator’s total service revenues come in MTRs account.
2-3% drop in service revenue growth will be encountered as a result of the future cuts to the rates. Ofcom’s proposals are open to consultation until June 23.
50% reduction in MTRs proposed by Belgian regulator
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: To increase competition in the wireless sector and reduce the cost of calls to consumers, the mobile network operators of Belgium has been asked by the country’s telecoms regulator, the Belgian Institute for Post and Telecommunications (BIPT) to halve mobile termination rates (MTRs). The operators have six weeks to respond to the regulator’s proposals.
50% cut in MTRs, far steeper than the 20% reduction has been recommended by the regulator. It is now widely expected that all three operators, Proximus (Belgacom Mobile), Mobistar and BASE, will appeal the decision.
Regulation of mobile interconnection rates had been proposed by BIPT in March 2006, and while the charges have been cut by around 50% since that date, the levels remain different for each of the three operators.
European Commission pressurises Slovakia to lower wholesale mobile rates
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Slovakia has been pressurised by Commission to lower wholesale mobile rates. The Commission called the country’s MTRs amongst the highest on the continent, and restated its position on the importance of using long-run incremental costing methodologies for calculating the efficient costs of termination, rather than the fully allocated costing approach proposed by TUSR.
