BuddeBlog

Mobile termination rates declining

A new report on Mobile Termination Rate from Telecommunications Management Group(TMG), features mobile termination rates for 140 economies worldwide. The mobile termination rate (MTR) is the wholesale price that mobile operators charge for terminating calls on their networks. This, in turn, can impact the retail price that consumers pay for their mobile phone service.

The report finds that MTRs have declined 34% since 2005, with the average global MTR standing at 8.4 U.S. cents in 2009. TMG believes that MTRs will continue to drop due to ongoing regulatory intervention to align interconnection rates with costs, with the world average reaching around 4 U.S. cents in four years (2013).

There is great diversity in MTRs between and within regions around the world. The Latin America/Caribbean and European regions have the highest average MTRs at more than 10 U.S. cents per minute. By contrast, the Asia-Pacific, Middle East and North Africa regions have the lowest MTRs with an average of around 5 U.S. cents.

The report also finds a close link between the MTRs and mobile phone usage. The highest level of usage is found in countries without calling party pays (e.g., where the party receiving the call rather than the calling party pays for call termination and where MTRs are not used) or where MTRs are very low.

For more information see: http://reports.tmgtelecom.com/mtr2010.