Oftel has formally asked the Competition Commission (CC) to investigate whether the charges that the four mobile network operators make for connecting calls to their networks are too high.

In September 2001 Oftel announced its proposals to bring down the cost of calling a mobile phone by requiring mobile operators to reduce the amount they charge other operators to connect a call to their network (their 'termination charge').

Oftel found that the mobile operators were setting these charges at a very high level compared to cost and were not under pressure from competition to reduce them. As these charges are passed through to the consumer in the retail price paid to call a mobile phone, Oftel decided that it would be necessary to intervene to protect the consumer and proposed that mobile operators reduce charges by inflation minus 12% over the next four years.

However all four mobile operators - BT Cellnet, One 2 One, Orange and Vodafone - rejected the proposals, meaning that the Director General could not go ahead to bring charges down.

Oftel still believes that mobile termination charges are excessive, meaning that the consumer is losing out by paying too much to call a mobile phone.

Consequently, in January 2002, the Director General referred the matter to the CC so that it might carry out its own investigation into the issue. The CC is gathering information from Oftel, the mobile operators, consumer groups, fixed operators and any other interested parties.

Once all the evidence is gathered, the CC will make its judgement as to whether controlling mobile termination charges is in the public interest.

Details of the ongoing investigation can be found on the Competition Commission website.