MSE News: Calls to mobile phones are set to become cheaper
Former_MSE_Helen
Former MSE 2.4K Posts
in Mobiles
This is the discussion thread for the following MSE News Story:
" Telecommunications watchdog Ofcom today rules that calls to mobiles from landlines and other networks will be cheaper ..."
" Telecommunications watchdog Ofcom today rules that calls to mobiles from landlines and other networks will be cheaper ..."
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More fiddling by Ofcom, I wonder how many years it took them to get to this decision? Keeps a few people in a job I suppose :T
Not necessarily. They lose income from incoming calls, but that therefore means they have to pay the other networks a lot less for the outgoing calls.
Edit: Fixed now.
Sorry but if you think something won't go up to compensate your joking.
The EU stuck there oar in to lower roaming cost, and we lost competitive 12 month tarrifs, They reduced text charges when abroad, we got moved to fixed bundles of data, and charged for the excess. Mobile companiues are shareholder driven, not consumer driven.
Sorry but your monthy will WILL NOT come down over this, it will just push up company profits and hence shareholder value.
I didn't say anyones bill will get cheaper, I'm just pointing out it's not exactly a drastic cut in income to them. They get a lot less from other networks, but they have to pay other networks a lot less.
Of course it won't get cheaper, and maybe it will get more expensive. All I'm saying is it isn't necessarily going to be a huge increase. Plus it's a bit naive to directly link EU roaming cuts to losing 12 month contracts, that was always going to happen. Just like 24 months is creeping into the mainstream and 36 month contracts are starting to be introduced. Especially as the phones themselves cost upwards of £500 nowadays.
The point isn't to simply get more money, it's to keep people on their network. It's easier than ever to switch networks and take your number with you, they want you locked in as long as possible.
By the time it is actually reduced to the 0.69p it will eventually become, calling will become a minority-feature of mobile phones (if it isn't already).
Anyone heard of any price cuts yet?
What you haven't factored in is if the networks pass on the savings (which they probably won't), so they'll make more money on x-net calls than they do now.
FWIW, O2's tariff refresh that happens in the next 2 weeks will see call charges out-of-bundle go up from 20.4p/min to 35p/min (including same network and landlines). How can they justify this now?
But it's not just other mobile networks it's landlines as well - the mobile operators charge far more for terminating inbound calls from landlines than they pay out for terminating outgoing calls to landlines, so they make a net profit.
The biggest effect of this will be lower landline to mobile prices, and stopping the current subsidy mobile users are getting from landline users. In 2014 when the mobile termination rate is similar to the landline termination rate there'll be no excuse not to include mobiles in the unlimited call packages all the landline telcos offer.
Most "inclusive minutes" tariffs are similar - they want you to buy far more minutes than you normally use so you end up wasting them.
The overall cost won't change but it will stop them ripping off one lot of people to subside another. Like with roaming charges which were (and still are) a complete rip-off in most cases.