BT vs Mobile operators: Latter wins (UK)
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: If a T-Mobile customer will call a Vodafone customer, certain amount will be charged from you under the name of mobile termination fees, an extra charge for receiving the call from outside the network. But if you are a BT subscriber, the cost isn’t shouldered by you but by the network operator. This issue has been taken up by the UK regulatory body OFCOM. British Telecom (BT) is the largest land-line operator in the UK.
The first attempt to fix this problem was made in the year 2007 and in this April, OFCOM announced that mobile operators would have to reduce the amount they charge for a termination. But BT has appealed against this proposal citing it to be too little, too late and asking that more drastic cuts should be introduced.
BT’s appeal has been rejected by the court according to which it has no power over OFCOM – and OFCOM doesn’t seem prone to changing its mind. British Telecom (BT) is the largest land-line operator in the UK. With mobile becoming a preferred mode of communication when compared to landline phone, it has been opined that OFCOM’s preferential treatment to mobile operators is nothing to be surprised of.
3 UK seeks to cut price to boost market share
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: After the proposal by UK regulator Ofcom to cut the mobile termination rates, telecom operator 3 UK has planned to aggressively increase its customer base.
3 UK is UK’s smallest mobile operator with just 5.8 million customers and its expenses are more as it pays more in MTR charges as compared to rival operators than it receives for connecting calls to its network.
According to 3 UK CEO Ken Russell, 3 planned to cut the cost of its phone calls in the next two years and that it could now be more aggressive with its voice call pricing and look to significantly expand its market share.
He also felt that the changes meant he could focus on the company’s market share.
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.
Ofcom calls for cut in mobile phone charge
Ofcom, communications regulator has proposed a steep reduction in connection charges for mobile phone users. As per the plans, the wholesale charges that operators make to connect calls to each others’ networks would fall from around 4.3p per minute to 0.5p per minute by 2015.
The company is also proposing to reduce the time taken to transfer a mobile number to another network from two working days to one.
In addition, the Porting Authorization Code (PAC) that consumers need to switch provider and keep their number will in future be issued immediately or within a maximum of two hours by text message. At present, the time and way to issue PAC varies considerably between providers.
BT should share underground ducts, telegraph poles, says regulator
BT Group PLC will have to share its telegraph poles and underground cable ducts with its rivals under new proposals put forward by regulator Ofcom to encourage competition and boost the introduction of a super-fast broadband network.
The competitors will now be using BT’s network of poles and ducts to lay their own fibre-optic cable, while BT will provide information about the space availability and the quality of ducts and poles.
According to Ofcom half of the duct network may have room for additional cables. As per the regulator, BT should also open its fibre lines so rivals firms can provide their own services to consumers.
At the same time, BT group seemed to be happy enough with the new proposals as it would enable it to recover market share lost to rivals in recent years.
BT to open access to underground ducts (UK)
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Open access to underground ducts is under preparation by British fixed line incumbent BT. BT’s rivals installing their own fibre-optic cabling in the duct can be seen on the implementation of this plan. The cable will effectively allow them to operate rival high speed broadband networks without facing the cost of digging to lay the cables.
According to Ian Livingston, BT’s chief executive, the company told regulator Ofcom last year that it is willing to provide open access to its ducts and although it’s unlikely to get fibre to every home, open access to all ducts might help BT and others extend coverage and so they expect government support.
