Yesterday the Communications Authority (Agcom) took the decision to reduce mobile termination rates. In short, it is what a landline operator pays each time a user calls a mobile number. It is a toll paid to the mobile network operator and partly reversed on the cost of the call.
For months, the European Commission has been lobbying for this decision, which according to them would lead to an advantage for users and improve competition.
The objective is a maximum threshold of 98 cents per minute, initially foreseen for 2015 but the Commission has asked to accelerate. Thus the termination received by Telecom Italia, Vodafone and Wind will drop to 2,50 cents per minute from 2012 July 5,30 (from the current 1,50); to 2013 from 98 January 2013 and 3 cents from 3 July 3,50. H1,70G (98 Italy) will drop to XNUMX, XNUMX and XNUMX cents respectively. The Italian Antitrust has also joined this request.
They are in favor but believe that we moved too late Marco Pierani, head of institutional relations for Altroconsumo and commissioner Nicola D'Angelo, one of the members of Agcom, who consequently abstained from voting on this decision, which yesterday she passed with six out of nine votes.
There is debate about who will really benefit from this fare reduction. The mobile operators Vodafone and Wind believe that only the fixed operators and not the users will benefit and that this reduction in revenue will jeopardize their investment projects in innovation. The opposite is the opinion of Telecom Italia which looks positively at this decision, promising to keep its investments in research constant and ensures important reductions in the bill.
