Brussels, 05/12/2008 (Agence Europe) - In a recently published letter, the European Commission asked the German national telecom watchdog, Bundesnetzagentur (BNetzA), to notify it of all German mobile operators' termination rates, that is to say the wholesale tariffs charged by the operator of a customer receiving a phone call to the operator of the caller's network. In 2006 and again in December 2008, BNetzA failed to submit details of these charges in its mobile termination market analysis. In its letter, the Commission warns BNetzA that it is considering launching infringement proceedings if the watchdog continues to fail to meet its obligations. “The German regulator should follow the examples of other national telecom regulators which do not only notify their cost control remedies in detail, but in some cases, such as in Italy, even promptly take the necessary regulatory measures to bring down termination rates to more competitive levels,” commented the EU telecom commissioner, Viviane Reding. “It is important that the regulatory process is transparent for all stakeholders and that operators can quickly adapt their strategies on the market to the new regulatory requirements. I regret that Germany does not seem to apply a regulatory policy which is compatible with these principles,” added the EU competition commissioner, Neelie Kroes.
In its letter, the commissioner rejected BNetzA's arguments that the rates do not need to be notified to the Commission under Article 7 of the framework directive. The Commission argues that the setting of the level of mobile termination rates has a clear cross-border effect and must be notified under the EU telecom rules. The regulatory measure proposed by BNetzA determines MTR with a special authorisation procedure under which the mobile operators active on the German retail market ask the regulator for approval of their rates. BNetzA argues that - due to the short deadline (10 weeks) for such authorisation procedure - it is not possible to proceed with a notification to the Commission. While termination rates are on a downward trend in the EU as a result of regulatory intervention at national level, the Commission has observed consistently high MTR in Germany and continuous inconsistency in average prices and regulatory approaches across member states, which cannot solely be explained by different national circumstances but by different price regulation. The Commission is therefore finalising a recommendation on the regulatory treatment of fixed and mobile termination rates which sets clear and consistent principles for national regulators on the relevant costs to be taken into account when they analyse their termination markets and set tariff obligations. In the case of Germany, the Commission has never had the chance to formally comment on the actual termination rates. (I.L./ transl.fl)