This doesn’t sound good. According to a number of reports, EC Commissioner Viviane Reding is planning to pare back mobile termination rates from 7p to around 1p. Funnily enough, mobile operators aren’t best pleased and have apparently told Reding that if she goes ahead with the cuts, they might be forced to charge customers to receive incoming calls.
Reding’s spokesman told the Telegraph: “Companies could introduce tariffs that made you pay to receive calls, but most consumers will not tolerate this. They will go elsewhere. This is an empty threat from the mobile phone companies.”
Too right. While operators in other countries might charge incoming call costs as the norm, trying to introduce a similar model in the UK years after the mobile market has matured would be something akin to operator suicide. Thankfully, it sounds like a lot of sabre rattling rather than a serious threat.