Brussels, 29/01/2009 (Agence Europe) - In a letter published on Thursday 29 January, the European Commission calls on the Bulgarian telecommunications regulator, the Communications Regulation Commission (CRC), to take action to further reduce mobile termination rates that operators charge to connect the call of another operator's customer. Termination rates are an important cost element when consumers call a phone connected to another network. They are included in everyone's phone bill and eventually paid by the calling customer. In 2008, mobile termination rates in Bulgaria were, with 15.09 eurocent/per minute, the highest in the EU (EU average: 8.7 eurocent/minute). The Commission also asks CRC not to discriminate when setting the level of termination rates between fixed and mobile networks and to apply similar termination rates for mobile calls originating from other mobile and fixed networks.
“Mobile termination rates in Bulgaria are the highest in Europe. I am pleased the CRC is committed to reducing them, but more substantial short term reductions are necessary. For consumers to benefit from lower prices for calls to mobile phones, it is imperative that charges for wholesale mobile termination services are set at the level of the cost of an efficient operator, and not above”, explains Viviane Reding, Telecommunications Commissioner.
The CRC has set a target to achieve mobile termination rates at a level of 7.6 eurocent/minute (for peak traffic) in 2010. However, according to the European Regulators Group, which brings together the EU's 27 national telecoms regulators, this level is already undercut today by many member states: Cyprus (2.01 eurocent/minute), Sweden (4.55 eurocent), Finland (5.29 eurocent), Austria (6 eurocent), Slovenia (6.38 eurocent), Romania (6.78 eurocent) and France (6.85 eurocent). (L.C./transl.jl)