In news that will no doubt shock you, people want to pay less for phone calls. They’ve even submitted a petition, but before you brush this off as another “slightly less effective than half a damp sponge” signature list, this one’s armed with over two hundred MPs, sixty businesses, executives of the mobile provider 3 and the upper echelons of British Telecom.
This isn’t the usual consumer “We want more for less” whining, it’s a campaign against Mobile Termination Rates (MTR): the extra charges that rack up whenever you dare to dial another network. These take up 14% of all mobile billing, and because it’s the networks all making money from each other it’s the exact opposite of competition – more networks is meant to make things cheaper, not become an excuse for imaginary expenses.
Some companies are waking up to the fact that this short-term profit is depressing the entire industry, and all the industries which depend on it, which is all of them. That’s why those who profit from the charge – 3 and BT – are leading the campaign to remove them across the board. A petition with over one hundred and fourteen thousand signatures has been submitted to Ofcom, and the issue has even been raised with the Prime Minister.
But don’t expect savings anytime soon: it might sound like a lot of people but that’s barely the population of Hatfield. And Ofcom are already looking at the issue with all the speed of a sedated sloth – two years ago they resolved to maybe cut charges by a quarter by 2011, then this year they re-resolved to begin a consultation to look into the rates from 2011 to 2015. So if we really light a rocket under them, your great-grandchildren might save as much as thirty pence before the sun explodes.
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