Rates that operators pay each other in the mobile go down 35% – publico

                 

                         
                     

                 

 
                         

The US is far from the alternative operator which was Optimus, but it is still who will have more to gain from the 35% reduction of mobile termination rates announced yesterday by Anacom. Wholesale charges that a company pays the other whenever a client calls your competitor network go down from the current 1.27 cents per minute to 0.83 cents. Are the values ​​that were already in a preliminary decision in April, which however was subject to public consultation.

                     

                         For being the company that has fewer customers in the mobile (a share of 18.9% in the first quarter, compared with 47.5% of MEO and 31.8% of Vodafone, according to data from Anacom), the US is more affected by so-called “network effect”. That is, as it has more customers connecting to larger networks is that more money delivery to competing with the termination rates. There is much that the company (which has come to benefit, while Optimus, of differentiated tariffs for being the smallest player) called for the fall in wholesale prices. A claim met now by Anacom, but that was expected since 2013.

“The existence of marked differences between prices inside and outside the network, associated with termination rates up costs, reinforce the effect network, and generate an imbalance of traffic to the detriment of smaller operators, “says the note from the regulator. Anacom, which never refers to the NOS, but the “smaller players”, speaks to correct “distortions of competition” and says that the generated cost savings can bring “benefits to consumers in general.”

With the descents become viable tariff “with the same price regardless of the destination network or that include free calls to all networks, helping to eliminate this network effect,” the regulator said headed by Fátima Barros.

On the flip side are the MEO (PT) and Vodafone. Lower costs for the US mean lower wholesale revenues for the two operators. It’s not so surprising that the readings on the descent differ. “This decision by which the US has to strive long, is to reduce the negative impact of the situation that has so far lived in the domestic market, leading to a significant improvement in competitive conditions,” said the official source PUBLIC operator.

The same source noted that in addition to the decrease of 35% from August 20, will be introduced “additional decreases of 4% and 8% respectively in July 2016 and July 2017.”

Could not get a reaction from MEO and Vodafone but the comments to draft decision of ANACOM, the company PT group opined that this ignores the growth of convergent packages with flat rates all-net “(which make no distinction as to the destination network and have large amounts of free calls) and that the merger Zon / Optimus have transformed the smallest operator in a big company, very strong” in the fixed market, particularly in the context of convergence. “

Since Vodafone recalled that operators consider the termination revenue when defining the pricing strategies, so that the descent could” lead to a need for changes in trade policies “, with possible worsening of conditions applied at retail.

It is above all “good news for the US,” he told PUBLIC Ricardo Bordalo Junqueiro, lawyer, consultant of Cuatrecasas, Gonçalves Pereira. And for consumers? NOS will pass on to customers the savings obtained? Go to MEO and Vodafone offset the decline in revenue with adjustments to the tariff? Neither one thing nor the other are guaranteed, but “it is at least strange Anacom’s argument” that the decline of endings plans to make possible the development of tariff aimlessly networks distinction, said the expert in telecommunications and competition law.

“These tariffs already exist and the past two years we even witnessed a large migration from prepaid to service packages, where the tariff no longer make this distinction,” also he said.

Anacom note that the decision to intervene in tariffs already has the endorsement of the European Commission and from the fact that operators have “significant market power and not having never promoted voluntary decreases in these prices.”

Current prices – 1.27 cents per minute – make Portugal the country with higher termination rates among the 20 European countries that have oriented termination rates to the costs of an efficient operator (in practice must charge prices approximate to the cost they have with the service provided).

“With the descent now advocated by Anacom, to 0.83 cents, Portugal becomes the eighth country with lower prices,” the Governor’s statement.