Competition Commission inquiry into mobile charges continues

As reported in the last issue, Oftel has asked the Competition Commission to investigate whether the charges that the four mobile network operators make for connecting calls to their networks (the 'termination charge') are too high, after the mobile operators rejected Oftel's proposals for charge controls of RPI-12%.

Oftel referred the matter to the Competition Commission (CC) January this year.

In May the CC requested an extension of six months. The Director General has agreed to this and conclusions will be published later in the year.

The CC has requested evidence from all interested parties including Oftel, the mobile operators, fixed operators, consumer groups, the advisory committees and others.

In April the CC published a 'Statement of Issues' setting out the areas that it wished to consider on the basis of the evidence that it had received at that time. These issues form the basis of the Commission's work to establish whether the mobile network operators' termination charges are too high and, if so, whether it is in the public interest for such charges to be regulated. The Statement, and further information on the ongoing inquiry, can be found on the CC's website at
www.competition-commission.org.uk/inquiries/mobile.

Oftel has so far attended two formal hearings and transcripts of these will be available in due course on the CC's website. Oftel has also submitted a number of written papers, copies of which can be found on Oftel's website.