The European Commission (EC) is cracking the whip on Spain’s telecoms regulator CMT, ordering it to speed up the introduction of lower mobile termination rates (MTRs).
CMT proposes introducing the MTR cuts in January 2014, some 13 months later than the end-2012 date agreed in an EC schedule in 2009. The national regulator claims sticking to that timeline will have a negative impact on operators, however the EC counters that consumers will suffer if mobile prices don’t fall.
"Spanish consumers should not have to pay over the odds for mobile calls, especially when domestic finances are so tight,” EC Digital Agenda vice president Neelie Kroes says.
Spain’s telecom industry “has already had three years to adapt, and a further delay of one year is unjustifiable,” Kroes notes.
The Commission states that MTRs in Spain and several other countries are currently much higher than rates established in its 2009 Termination Rates Recommendation. That agreement stipulates that MTRs are set at a level equal to what it would cost an efficient operator to terminate calls on its network.