Communications regulator Ofcom has published proposals which will make it cheaper to call mobile phones from a landline. Ofcom proposes slashing mobile termination rates, which are the wholesale charges that operators make to connect calls to each others networks. Under Ofcoms plans, these wholesale rates would fall from around 4.3p per minute today, to 0.5p per minute by 2015. The proposals will also mean that both landline and mobile operators have more flexibility in designing competitive call packages.
Commenting on Ofcoms announcement, Mike Wilson, mobiles manager at moneysupermarket.com, says: Its been clear for some time that termination rates dont reflect the real costs of calling a landline or another mobile network. The vast majority of customers are unaware they even pay mobile termination rates, despite the fact they make up a significant cost of a call. We feel this penalises customers unfairly thats why we backed the campaign from the start so it is great to see that Ofcom agrees that this hidden charge has to pretty much go.
Ofcom is also proposing to reduce the time taken to transfer a mobile number to anther network from two working days to one. In addition, the Porting Authorisation Code (PAC) that consumers need to switch provider and keep their number will in future be issued immediately or within a maximum of two hours by text message. Currently, the time and way in which PACs are issued varies considerably between providers. Some networks only issue PACs by letter, which can take several days to arrive.Following a six week consultation on legal implementation and timing of the proposal, Ofcom expects the changes to come into effect in the first half of 2011.