News - Mobile termination cap commences 1 April

[HEXUS]

Ofcom is terminating much of the charges for connecting to other networks.

Read more.

[miniyazz]

I don't normally pay a fee to phone another network - who does this affect?

Or does it mean roaming?

[Scott B]

I don't normally pay a fee to phone another network - who does this affect?

Or does it mean roaming?

The other network charges your network and they pass the charge onto you. Look at the cost of calling a phone on a network other than your own.

[miniyazz]

Hmm, sounds like there'll be a net price change of approximately £0 then, since they're simply all charging each other less

But I'm not seeing this cost increase - I presume it must be absorbed by the networks already, in the main at least.

Voice call Charges.
Voicemail (flat rate):
£0.16 per minute
Three-to-UK landline (flat rate):
£0.26 per minute
Three-to-Three UK (flat rate):
£0.26 per minute
Three to other UK mobile networks (flat rate):
£0.26 per minute

Calls to landlines1, Virgin Mobiles2
and any other UK mobile networks2

26p per minute

[Scott B]

Interesting, my understanding was that calls to your own network are generally a lot cheaper. But then again, maybe operators have already adjusted to these new rules. Orange doesn't seem to charge extra for other networks now either. I wonder when this changed.

[aidanjt]

Awesome, it only took 'em 2 decades to figure out the cross-network charges are a joke, but hey, they're bureaucrats, can't expect miracles.

[miniyazz]

Well about 8 years ago Virgin used to charge 15p/min for calls to other Virgin phones (and to landlines) and 35p/min to other networks, but they got rid of that cheap pricing probably 4 years ago. Not sure if that's related though, I seem to recall other networks not being nearly as cheap for intranetwork calls.