BT and 3UK start ‘terminate the rate’ campaign
By Ben Robinson on Tuesday, May 26th, 2009 at 2:19 PM PST In UK News
Crumbs, this one has got some heat below it…. 3UK and BT have started a campaign to get the MTR (Mobile Termination Rate) lowered from it’s current rate, to one which is, presumably, more reasonable – I’ll let them explain:
When you call a friend on a different mobile network, or call their mobile from your landline, their network will charge your operator a fee for carrying the call.
This is called a Mobile Termination Rate or MTR and is currently charged at around 4.7p or more for every minute of the call.
The billions of minutes for which this fee is charged adds up to billions of pounds for UK consumers every year.
We think Mobile Termination Rates are excessive and distort competition. So we want the industry regulator, Ofcom, to lower the rate to reflect actual costs.
So if you agree with this, then you can sign up to the online petition here – and at the same time you can check out the blog. Personally I think it’s a great idea – anything that reduces the cost of calls is just fine by me!
[Via: Terminate the Rate]
Ben, the revenue from MTR is huge for networks like O2 and Vodafone (the net receivers). Reducing or removing the MTR won’t lead to lower costs for consumers just lower payments for BT and 3. It’s naive to think that 3 and BT will pass those savings to consumers.