The European Commission published, on Friday 18 December, a draft delegated Regulation setting price ceilings for fixed and mobile voice calls. This document, from the comitology proposal, originates from the Electronic Communications Code (Article 75) which is supposed to be transposed in all Member States by Monday 21 December 2020 at the latest.
In general, the draft delegated Regulation sets the EU-wide mobile termination rate at 0.2 eurocent per minute and the EU-wide fixed call rate at 0.07 eurocent per minute (Eurorates). Termination rates are the rates that telecommunications operators charge each other for providing voice calls between their networks. This Commission delegated act follows a public consultation in the second half of 2019 (see EUROPE 12545/2).
For mobile communications, the text provides for a three-year glide path: 0.7 cent in 2021, 0.55 cent in 2022, 0.4 cent in 2023 to reach the maximum rate of 0.2 cent from 2024 onwards. However, as a number of Member States apply tariffs below the proposed ceilings, the Commission considers that the tariffs applicable in those Member States at the entry into force of the delegated act should be maintained. This means that the maximum mobile voice call termination rates in Sweden (0.2 cent), Portugal (0.4 cent), Malta (0.4 cent), Ireland (0.43 cent), Cyprus (0.48 cent), Denmark (0.52 cent), Hungary (0.53 cent), the Netherlands (0.58 cent), Greece (0.62 cent), Croatia (0.63 cent) and Spain (0.67 cent) will be maintained in 2021.
As far as fixed termination rates are concerned, the Commission foresees a transitional period in 2021, taking into account, it explains, the considerable dispersion of current fixed termination rates and the fact that the current average (excluding Poland and Finland) is close to the EU ceiling. Link: http://bit.ly/31pq1Q8 (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)