German Regulators to Set Prices for Calls to Mobiles
June 26, 2006
Last year, mobile operators in Germany, such as Britain's Vodafone Group Plc and T-Mobile, owned by Deutsche Telekom, cut the rates they charge for terminating calls on their networks.
But the German regulating authority, the Bundesnetzagentur, has said these cuts did not suffice and, earlier this year, gave the operators a final chance to reduce rates further since prices in Germany were much higher than in the rest of Europe.
Mobile network operators charge for calls made to their customers by people using land-line phones. These charges are added to the price fixed-line callers pay per minute and make up a significant part of the overall price for calls.
The regulator said it had sent its plans for cutting the termination fees to the European Commission and national regulating authorities in Europe, who have been given one month to reply to its proposals.
In December, Vodafone and T-Mobile slashed their fees about 30 percent to around 0.11 euros ($0.132) per minute. Their rivals E-Plus, owned by Dutch telecommunications group KPN, and Britain's O2, owned by Telefonica, charge 0.124 euro a minute.