Mobile termination rates cost customers

Mobile termination rates (MTRs) are the root of high call costs - in fact UK consumers spend up to £1 billion a year paying for them. They are the charges paid by operators to connect calls to mobiles and are at passed on to consumers for every minute of every call, however when surveyed nine out of 10 adults did not know what a termination rate actually is.

According to research from the UK's leading price comparison website moneysupermarket.com, the majority of adults have never heard of MTRs even though they can account for as much as 80 percent of the cost per minute of a call from a home phone line to a mobile.

The survey also reveals that nine out of 10 people (88 per cent) feel that these charges are unfair (once the respondents were informed that MTRs are charged at 4.7p or more for each minute despite the actual costs costing less than a penny).

The Terminate the Rate campaign is calling on Ofcom to lower MTRs to a rate that reflects actual costs, and if successful, could result in a huge saving for consumers.

James Parker, mobile manager at moneysupermarket.com, said: "Millions of people do not know these charges even exist because mobile networks have managed to hide MTRs from the public for too long. These charges do not show up on your monthly bill but these hidden charges are still passed on to anyone who makes a call to a mobile. By reducing MTRs providers can offer even greater value to customers and could even see the introduction of unlimited tariffs."

Consumers have a huge appetite for unlimited tariffs, which have no restrictions on the number of texts or calls they make, as the survey reveals mobile users said they would be willing to pay up to 29 per cent more than their current monthly cost to have unlimited allowance for a set monthly fee.

James Parker adds: "By signing up to this campaign we can help reduce MTRs, which in turn will reduce the cost of calls and increase the value offered by providers. If people are sick of paying higher charges for calling a mobile I urge them to sign up to the Terminate the Rate campaign to get these unfair charges reduced.

MTRs currently account for 4.7 pence or more of every minute of a call to a mobile. This is more than 10-times the termination rate charged to call a fixed-line phone. We want to Terminate the unfair Rate and bring it down to around a penny or less, saving consumers and businesses hundreds of millions of pounds a year."