BUDAPEST (Dow Jones)-The Hungarian telecommunications authority NHH will cut mobile termination fees gradually for the three mobile companies operating in Hungary, NHH Chairman Daniel Pataki said Thursday.
The authority will cut fees in three stages starting Jan. 1, 2007 and by the Jan. 1, 2009 all three mobile operators will be obliged to use similar termination fees.
The three mobile operators currently use different termination fees and the extent of fee cuts will also be different for all three companies. The first cut will become effective Jan. 1, 2007, followed by further decreases on the same date in 2008 and 2009.
T-Mobile, the largest Hungarian mobile operator based on market share and owned by Magyar Telekom Nyrt., will have to decrease its termination fees by 14.74% per year for the next three years as a result of which the termination fees will decrease to HUF16.84 (HUF1=$224) per minute by 2009.
The second largest mobile service provider, Pannon GSM, owned by Norway's Telenor, will have to decrease its termination fees by 16.99% annually over the next three years, also reaching HUF16.84 per minute by 2009.
Vodafone Hungary, the local unit of Vodafone Group Plc. (VOD), will have to cut its termination fees by 19.77% per year for the next three years.
Pataki stressed that the cost of mobile telephony for customers decreased by 11% over the past five years in real, or inflation-adjusted terms.
"This trend will be further strengthened by the authority's three-year plan," Pataki added.
The NHH calculated the fees based on its own cost model as opposed to the previous practice of overviewing and changing the cost models submitted by the three companies.
"The operators have so far submitted unacceptable cost models to us and we always ended up using a benchmark. But now we have our own model to use," Pataki said.
The three operators will have a right to submit their own three-year cost models, which the NHH will overview and decide whether these are acceptable.
"Even if we end up accepting their (the operators') cost model, the final termination fees will have to be very close to our current figures," said Emilia Nyevrikel, member of the NHH council.
Authority's Web site: http:www//.nhh.hu
-By Edith Balazs, Dow Jones Newswires; +361-267-0623; edith.balazs@dowjones.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires"
Posted to the site on 29th June 2006
Posted to: www.cellular-news.com/story/18045.php