Is UK mobile cartel under threat?

One of the reasons mobile operators have thrived in Europe is because they have been able to keep the call termination charges quite high, but that practice is coming under pressure from British telecom regulator, Ofcom.

Starting April 1, the mobile network operators have been asked to comply with new rules that limits the fees they can charge for call termination. These reductions come into effect through 2011.The 3g mobile carrier, 3 for instance has been asked to reduce its termination charges by 45% to about 5.9 cents a minute, which is still high.

While it might seem like nitpicking, but now the smaller VoIP carriers can terminate calls on mobile phones at lower prices, giving their customers in turn a better deal. Just to clarify, if you use a VoIP service, you always pay more to call mobile phones, which is primarily because the call termination charges are much higher on the mobile networks. It is a worldwide problem.

Nevertheless, at least in the UK, the mobile VoIP service providers are ready to party. Why? Because now a call originating from a mobile VoIP client, can go over 3G and terminate to a regular mobile phone at an affordable price. Nice way to do an end run, around the mobile carrier’s own network. It also explains why Orange and Vodafone have been disabling the VoIP features on the new Nokia N95 that comes ready to send calls over euro3G and WiFi. I did not believe their explanation, even for a minute.

thanks to this change, which could cut call termination charges by close to a billion dollars.

Via Rebtel Blog

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