Great Britain’s Office of Telecommunications said it is exploring the possibility that wireless phone operators Vodafone plc and Cellnet are charging local telephone operator British Telecommunications plc unfair interconnect rates.
“Oftel is concerned that Cellnet and Vodafone may be exploiting the market power they enjoy and is investigating further the level of the charges in the new interconnect agreements and BT’s proposed retail prices,” stated Oftel.
Wireless and wireline carriers in Britain pay one another interconnect charges, said Oftel. The operator that terminates the call issues the fee to the call’s originating network. On average, wireline operators pay more for interconnect to wireless operators than wireless carriers pay wireline operators.
BT, whose interconnect rates are regulated by Oftel, has paid an on-peak/off-peak average of 34.4 cents per minute to Vodafone and Cellnet for call termination since April, whereas rival wireline operator Mercury Communications is paying the two mobile operators only 24.6 cents per minute to send calls onto their networks, reported Oftel.
BT negotiated with Vodafone and Cellnet for a rate decrease to 30.1 cents per minute beginning in October.
However, “Oftel considers that these rates may still be too high in relation to cost,” said the office’s report. “They are markedly higher than the charges which result from the indexation of Oftel’s determination of the payments Mercury makes to Vodafone and Cellnet.”
Oftel’s next action is “to obtain cost information from parties involved,” said Oftel spokesman Clive Hart.
While Oftel has no regulatory power over agreements between the mobile operators and Mercury, it does “have powers to investigate anti-competitive behavior,” added Hart.
BT reportedly assesses all mobile phone operators equal interconnect rates.
Mercury’s One-2-One cellular subsidiary and Orange plc are the country’s two other wireless phone operators.
