In response to a dispute between Redstone Network Services Ltd. and Vodafone Group plc, the U.K.’s Office of Telecommunications released a consultative document on personal numbering costs, which provides analysis and preliminary conclusions on the issue.
Redstone, a personal numbering services operator, complained to Oftel that Vodafone is engaged in a discriminatory practice that involves charging higher prices for calls to its 07050 Callsure Mobile personal numbering service than for calls to Cellnet numbers. Vodafone incurs similar costs to handle both types of calls, said Redstone.
Oftel said it provisionally concluded that Redstone’s complaint cannot be upheld, based on an analysis of the market for personal numbering services. The telecommunications industry watchdog said it will make a final decision after reviewing comments from personal numbering service providers and network operators, which are due April 28.
Oftel said the complaint raised two key pricing issues, the first is one of undue discrimination and its potential to distort competition, and the other is an issue of excessive pricing and its impact on the calling party.
“Redstone initially argued that it believed personal numbering provider and mobile network providers were in the same product market and thus calls to their respective services ought to be tariffed in the same way,” said Oftel’s consultative document. “In support of this, Redstone argued that both types of calls involved similar underlying conveyance resources for call origination by Vodafone, and that the payments made by Vodafone to Cellnet and to Redstone were very similar for certain times of day.”
An outline of peak retail rates in the Oftel document indicates Vodafone charges about 28 cents per minute for calls to Redstone, compared with about 11 cents per minute for calls to Cellnet. During off-peak times, the prices are nearly 17 cents per minute for calls to Redstone, compared with about 6 cents per minute for calls to Cellnet.
Since the complaint originally was lodged nearly two years ago, Redstone has gone on to argue that its 07050 personal numbering service is competing directly with call divert facilities-which often are included in the subscription to a fixed or mobile network-and that personal numbering and call divert are substitutes for each other.
Oftel concluded that Redstone’s personal numbering service is not competing in the same market as network-embedded call divert services, because they do not allow for call origination and are intended to complement existing network services. As a result, said Oftel, Vodafone is not unduly discriminating against Redstone.
Oftel did, however, note that change and convergence in the future could lead to a situation where the distinction between personal numbering services and network-embedded call divert services would become blurred.
Redstone appears to have had more success with a second complaint it filed one year ago with Oftel, claiming Vodafone was showing preference to its own personal numbering facility by charging its cellular customers a lower rate for calls to its service than for calls to those of its rivals, including Redstone. Oftel said Vodafone has agreed to correct this difference in pricing so that calls to equivalent personal numbering services will now be tariffed at the same level.
Oftel estimates that between 200,000 and 250,000 people subscribe to personal numbering services in the United Kingdom. Redstone holds about 60 percent of the market, while the next largest provider has 15 percent and five other carriers account for the remaining 25 percent, said Oftel.
