The Instituto das Comunicações de Portugal (ICP) has approved a draft decision to cut the inter-operator tariffs for fixed-mobile and mobile-mobile origination and termination connections. The operators involved have ten days in which to comment on the draft.
The aim of this tariff cut is to benefit consumers and to stimulate competition in this market, extending users' conditions of access to the mobile services. The figures set out in the draft decision are wholesale, that is, the sums charged between operators in the event of calls between different networks. They are not the prices to be charged to end customers, though they should be reflected in these prices.
The originating price is understood to be the amount charged by the operator through which the call is originated to the operator ending the call. The termination price is the opposite, that is, the amount charged by the operator terminating the call to the operator originating it. To simplify, both cases involve the ''service'' of routeing a call to a given destination.
In mobile networks termination connections (fixed-mobile and mobile-mobile calls), the maximum prices will evolve throughout the year, standing at EUR 0.2270 (45$50) as from January 1st 2002; at EUR 0.2170 (43$50) as from March 31st 2002; at EUR 0.2070 (41$50) as from June 30th 2002; at EUR 0.1970 (39$50) as from September 30th 2002; and at EUR 0.1870 (37$50) as from December 31st 2002. These are maximum figures for domestic calls per minute, for a 100-second call charged by the second, at the most as from the first minute.
In mobile networks origination connections, the maximum price to be charged as from January 1st 2002 will be EUR 0.1870 (37$50) per minute, with billing per second as from the first minute.
For termination connections involving international calls on the mobile network, the maximum price to be charged as from January 1st 2002 is EUR 0.1870 (37$50) per minute with billing per second as from the first second.
Operators have ten days in which to forward their comments on the draft decision, which includes these prices to ICP. Approval of these prices will not prevent ICP from reviewing them as from the last quarter of 2002, should regulatory and market conditions so warrant.
Consult:
- Prices of Interconnection services practised by mobile telephone service operators https://www.anacom.pt/render.jsp?contentId=417379
