Operators ask to dodge termination fees

The Competition Appeal Tribunal has referred the question of wholesale mobile termination rates – the fee each operator charges another to connect a call on their network – to the Competition Commission after appeals by BT and 3.

The appeals come after Ofcom changed the controls on mobile termination rates early last year, which it said at the time would save operators £400 to £500 million a year and that saving should be passed on to retail customers.

According to The Guardian, the operators are now hoping to get termination rates down to nothing in order to be able to offer all-you-can-eat call plans of the type that have become common in the US. If that’s the case, great. If it saves the operators money, that’s great too – as long as the operators remember to send a bit of those savings our way, as Ofcom asked for.