Brussels slaps Ofcom over mobile rates

Time to rethink those interoperator call charges

Mobile customers are being fleeced for calls to competing networks because Ofcom has not cracked down on charges imposed by the UK's five mobile operators, according to the European Commission.

Brussels has sent a letter to the telecoms watchdog highlighting how charges imposed by O2, Orange, T-Mobile, Vodafone and Hutchison-owned 3 could be detrimental to fair competition in the UK's mobile market.

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The five operators have added on average 1.2p per minute to the levy paid by one mobile operator for connecting with another - an attempt to earn back the £22.5bn they collectively forked out for the five UK 3G licences in 2000.

Ofcom has proposed plans to reduce these rates within three years, to between 5.3 pence and 6 pence per minute. But the EC says the proposals do not accurately reflect the current value of the 3G spectrum.

The Commission calls on Ofcom to reconsider its valuation of 3G licences so customers get a better price.

Earlier this year Brussels hit out at mobile operators for overcharging customers who use their phones when abroad.

Ofcom said in a statement: "Ofcom took a large number of cost factors into account in determining its proposed charge controls, including the forward looking opportunity cost of spectrum. Ofcom welcomes the Commission's response and will consider it, and of course all others, ahead of publishing its final view in March 2007."