It might not be as sexy as a new phone or a great new app, but Mobile Termination Rates are something you should take notice of. It’s a fee added on to the cost of delivering a call, which keeps the price of calling mobile phone so high.
Ofcom – the industry regulator – has finally confirmed that it will order the rates to be cut significantly. By as much as 80% over the next few years, which must be passed on to consumers through lower call charges.
Three has for some time campaigned to ‘Terminate the Rate’ along with other businesses including BT, Moneysupermarket.com and the Federation of Small Businesses.
The network even introduced the new ‘One Plan’ tariff last year in anticipation of the rates being reduced, giving an impressive 2,000 any network minutes in addition to 5,000 texts, 5,000 calls to other Three users and – more recently – unlimited data. Starting at just £25 per month, for a 12-month contract (SIM-only), it’s a tariff that is hard to beat.
Ofcom will order that the MTRs (around 4.3p) are cut in phases, starting at a cut to 2.66p in 2011 and dropping each year, until reaching 0.69p in April 2014.
Three will certainly be pleased that Ofcom didn’t fold under pressure from the big operators, which all make a significant profit by having more calls delivered on their network than on Three’s.
