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S.1 On completion of the market review concerning wholesale mobile voice call termination services, the Office of Communications ("Ofcom") issued a statement (the "Statement") on 1 June 2004 that included a notification published pursuant to sections 48(1) and 79(4) of the Communications Act 2003 (the "Act").

S.2 In that notification, Ofcom identified wholesale voice call termination provided by each of the mobile network operators ("MNOs") as the relevant services markets, made market power determinations to the effect that each MNO has significant market power ("SMP") in the respective relevant market, and set SMP conditions accordingly.

S.3 These SMP conditions include a requirement for each of O2, Orange, T-Mobile and Vodafone to meet controls for the charges set for 2G voice call termination for two periods (namely, 1 September 2004 to 31 March 2005 and 1 April 2005 to 31 March 2006).

S.4 These requirements include two traffic-specific sets of controls with which each MNO has to comply - one each for termination of fixed-to-mobile calls and off-net mobile-to-mobile calls. However, in setting these two controls, Ofcom recognised that some MNOs may, for operational reasons, find themselves unable to comply with such traffic-specific requirements. Ofcom therefore included a provision in these requirements that in such circumstances and with consent in writing from Ofcom, MNOs could switch from traffic-specific to total volume controls.

S.5 Following publication of the Statement, O2, Orange, T-Mobile and Vodafone have each formally requested such consents for both periods of the control.

S.6 Ofcom's provisional view is that such consents should be granted. As part of its duties under section 49 of the Act, Ofcom is now consulting on the proposed draft consents.

S.7 In order for the relevant SMP conditions to reflect the proposed consents, Ofcom is also proposing modifications to these SMP conditions under section 48(2) of the Act.

S.8 Ofcom seeks views from interested parties on the proposal to grant consent and on the proposed modifications to the relevant SMP conditions by no later than 9 August 2004.

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Wholesale Mobile Voice Call Termination charge controls - request for consent

• Wholesale Mobile Voice Call Termination charge controls - request for Consent [pdf]

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