Mobile call rates to fall

Wednesday 4th August 2010

Communications Minister Steve Joyce has accepted the Commerce Commission’s recommendation to regulate the prices phone companies charge each other to end a call on their network.

Joyce says regulation will boost competition in the mobile market and lead to lower prices for users. The commission expects the decision will come into effect in the second-half of September. Mobile termination access won’t be added to act for a few months, so it will be a while before the commission sets prices for the market.

“The telecommunications industry has emphasised the importance of providing certainty over mobile termination rates, and completing the standard terms development process promptly will provide this certainty,” said Ross Patterson, Telecommunications Commissioner.

“As soon as the changes to the act giving effect to the minister’s decision come into force, the commission expects to commence a standards terms development process for MTAS.”

The decision completes the regulator’s u-turn on mobile termination after Joyce questioned their original recommendation not to regulate after a Vodafone NZ pricing plan raised the hackles of some officials. In June, the regulator revised its assessment saying the Vodafone plan “undermined” competition and termination rates needed regulation.

It had earlier recommended Joyce accept the phone companies’ offer to lower termination fees to 6 cents by 2014 in a split decision. Commissioner Anita Mazzoleni, who had taken the lead on telecommunications issues during the absence of Patterson, giving a dissenting view, after previously shooting down submissions from Telecom and Vodafone, saying they fell short of the regulator’s target.

Businesswire.co.nz

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