British consumers are the latest to look forward to lower mobile phone costs as the UK Competition Commission has ordered a reduction in mobile termination rates by April 2010.
Under the ruling, UK network operators must reduce MTRs from 5.1 pence a minute to 4 pence a minute.
Interestingly the cut in MTRs was advocated by one of the UK carriers – Hutchison 3G (H3G), along with dominant landline carrier, BT.
H3G and BT appealed the MTRs recommended by UK regulator Ofcom arguing there was still room for improvement.
In fact, H3G feels the rates could be lowered even further with CEO Kevin Russell stating: "High mobile termination rates are wrong. They are a barrier to effective competition, provide an artificial price floor for mobile calls and lead to an unnecessary subsidy from fixed-line customers to the mobile industry."
H3G has argued for a more fundamental reform of the system and has gone as far as calling MTRs a rip off that cost the British public in excess of £2.5bn a year.
Meanwhile, in New Zealand mobile phone operators recently submitted their undertakings around MTRs to the Commerce Commission as part of its latest investigation into the charges.
While incumbents Vodafone and Telecom called for the MTR deeds of undertaking they entered into with the government in 2007 to be preserved, yet-to-launch newcomer NZ Communications argued for a “bill and keep” system in which operators recover costs from their own customers, rather than competitors.