Mobile termination rates plummeted by an average of 42 percent in the 35 OECD countries between end-2014 and end-2017 as a result of increased regulation and competition, according to a new report from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. The prices operators charge each other to connect calls fell across the board in the OECD area, led by Mexico (-84%), Hungary (-80%) and Ireland (-73%). Termination rates are currently highest in Switzerland, whereas in the US a new system known as “bill-and-keep” has resulted in operators rates being reduced to zero, said the report.
The OECD also revealed that mobile broadband subscriptions grew by 93 million, or 7.6 percent, in the year to June 2017, taking mobile broadband penetration to over 100 percent in the OECD area for the first time. There were a total of 1.31 billion mobile broadband subscriptions in the OECD's population of 1.28 billion people in July 2017, equivalent to 101.8 subscriptions per 100 people. The fastest growth in subscriptions was seen in Poland (33%) followed by Chile (24%), Slovenia (23%), Austria (23%) and Turkey (22%).
Other findings included in the report include the fact that the cost of a high-usage mobile plan with voice calls fell in OECD countries from an average of USD 71 in May 2013 to USD 39 in May 2016 (at purchasing power parity) and that Sweden led in use of machine-to-machine communications with 101.5 M2M subscriptions per 100 inhabitants followed by New Zealand, Norway, Finland and the Netherlands with between 20 and 30 M2M connections per 100 people.
