OPTA responds to European Commissions's recommendation on call termination rates

The European Commission today issued a recommendation for OPTA to set lower call termination rates in the Netherlands. Early 2012 OPTA notified the Commission of a new proposal for call termination rates. These rates were higher than those set in a previous OPTA decision. In 2011 the Dutch Trade and Industry Tribunal (the CBb) overturned this decision stating that the rates were found too low. The court’s ruling allowed telecom operators to charge each other higher rates for call termination on their networks. The regulator is ordered to follow the national court’s ruling and proposed higher rates to the European Commission accordingly.

“Partial to lower rates”
Mark de Jong, OPTA’s deputy chair, stated “I would rather see lower termination rates in the Netherlands, just as much as the European Commission. However, OPTA is bound by the ruling of the national court to set higher rates. The ruling is irreversible.”

Call termination rates
The telecom operator of the person receiving the call may charge the telecom operator of the person placing the call for the use of their network: the call termination rate. OPTA determines these termination rates. OPTA then proposes these rates to the European Commission, after which the decision will come into effect and operators are able to appeal OPTA’s decision to the CBb. In this case the CBb has set higher rates. The rate for fixed call termination has since been set to a maximum of 0.72 euro cent per minute. As a result the caller’s bill may be approximately one percent higher than would be the case with the tariffs previously determined by OPTA. 0.72 eurocent will be the tariff until OPTA’s new proposal on fixed termination rates will come into effect. After taking the utmost account of the Commission’s recommendation, OPTA is expecting to be able to publish the final decision this Summer.