Spain’s communications regulator CNMC has launched a public consultation on its proposal to slash mobile call termination fees by up to 40 percent. Under the terms of its proposal, the fee charged by the country’s mobile network operators or full MVNOs to any other operator for terminating calls on its network would be reduced from the current 1.09 eurocents a minute to the EC-recommended figure of 0.65 eurocents a minute irrespective of the origin of the call, the technology used or the form of interconnection. The existing rate has been in force since July 2013, with the CNMC arguing that cuts in the price of mobile termination rates have been shown to have a highly positive effect on competition and have led to increasing voice traffic on mobile networks.
The watchdog added that calls originating from outside of the European Economic Area would not be subject to the price regulation and that, in view of market developments, it also proposed to declare all MNOs and full MVNOs as operators with significant market power (SMP) in the provision of voice call termination on their respective networks.
Interested parties now have two months in which to submit their views before the CNMC sends its draft measure to the European Commission for approval.
