Secret Mobile Phone Hidden Charges
Secret Mobile Phone Hidden Charges
15th July , 2009
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UK : A hidden charge that you pay every time you call a mobile from a landline is one of Britain’s biggest ‘secret taxes’, according to research released by the Terminate the Rate campaign (terminatetherate.org).
Taxes on beer (15.6%), insurance (17.5%) and fuel (52.2%) are all exceeded by the little known Mobile Termination Rates (MTR), which account for as much as 80% of the price per minute of a call from a home phone line to a mobile.
Mobile Termination Rates (MTRs) are charges paid to mobile operators to connect calls to mobiles and cost UK phone users around 5p per minute when calling a mobile phone from a landline or from a mobile phone on a different network.
Hugh Davies of 3, speaking for the Terminate the Rate campaign, said: “Hidden taxes on things like petrol and beer can be annoying, but MTRs far exceed these taxes in percentage terms and the vast majority of the British Public are unaware that they even exist. In these tough economic times any unnecessary costs are hard for people to bear – one that represents up to 80% of the value of the product it’s attached to is too much. It’s time to bring these rates down to a level that’s fair for all phone users.”
The Terminate the Rate Campaign was launched on the 20th May 2009 with support from BT, mobile operator 3 and a range of consumer and business organisations. The members have come together to call for an end to high Mobile Termination Rates and are calling on Ofcom to Terminate the unfair Rate and bring it down to around a penny or less, saving hundreds of millions. In the weeks since launch, nearly 40,000 people have registered their support for a fairer deal at terminatetherate.org.
The European Commission has also recognised that high MTRs penalise consumers and stifle competition and on the 7th of May recommended that national regulators like Ofcom take a new approach to setting MTRs to bring them down to reasonable levels. We are calling on Ofcom to implement changes to drive down the cost of MTRs promptly.
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