Friday, May 6, 2011

Arcep requires mobile operators to reduce wholesale rates

The French telecoms regulator, Arcep, has made the decision Friday, May 6 (pdf) requiring operators of mobile telephony division by four, by 2013, tariffs so-called "termination" that is operators charge each other. When a subscriber uses a landline or mobile to call a mobile network of a competitor, called operator charges the operator calling a "mobile voice call termination (MT).

In practice, it is a zero sum game, or almost: Bouygues, SFR and Orange charge each other for call termination, and such flows "are both a burden and a source of income for operators. Ultimately, the charging of the call termination is a balanced sum of financial flows between operators in the sector as a whole, "notes Arcep.

Call termination, however, constitute an obstacle to the development of type offers unlimited judge Arcep: promoting a large number of calls to other operators, these offers are increasing the volume of TA to be paid by the operator the practitioner. In accordance with previous decisions, and according to the law which provides that Arcep has control over the rates for operators deemed to have a significant influence on a market in electronic communications sector ", the authority will then gradually increase tariffs to 0.8 cents per call, against 3 to 3.4 cents today.

Arcep also believes that if high levels of wholesale rates have helped "to help finance the deployment" of mobile networks, "the competitive and regulatory environment has changed considerably," no longer justify such levels. This decision does not control the operator Free Mobile, which is not yet activated.

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