Process for Vodafone’s termination rate offer

Media Release

Issued 17 November 2005/062

Process for dealing with Vodafone’s commercial offer in mobile termination reconsideration
Vodafone has provided to the Commission key terms of its offer to reduce mobile termination rates as an alternative to regulation.
The Commission’s usual practice when evaluating commercial alternatives to regulation is to ensure as much information as possible is made public, to ensure parties’ positions are well tested and the credibility of the process is upheld. In the particular circumstances of this case, and following the High Court’s decision that the Commission could not make public key terms of Vodafone’s offer, the Commission considers that it is appropriate to proceed by protecting Vodafone’s offer through the Commission’s standard confidentiality arrangements.
Parties wishing to have access to the information should apply to the Commission to do so under the terms of the Commission’s confidentiality order.
The Commission will issue "public" and "restricted" versions of both the draft and final reports dealing with the reconsideration. The "public" versions of those reports will not include details of Vodafone’s offer of reduced termination rates nor any figures derived from those rates apart from the total net benefits or detriments. Vodafone’s termination rate information will be contained in a confidential annex to the “restricted” versions of the draft and final reconsideration reports. The Commission will release a public version of its cost benefit analysis model, excluding confidential data.
Background
The Commission began its investigation into mobile termination in May last year after considering complaints that a potential lack of competition in the wholesale market for terminating mobile calls may be resulting in unreasonably high retail charges for fixed-to-mobile calls.
In June the Commission recommended in its final report to the Minister of Communications that the termination of fixed line voice calls on a cellular telephone network should be regulated but not termination on future 3G networks. ADVERTISEMENT

In August the Minister asked the Commission to reconsider its recommendation. The reasons specified by the Minister for the reconsideration were to:
- “… give consideration to the definitional and implementation issues concerning 2G and 3G which have been identified by submitters and independent technical advice and, as part of the consideration, to consider what alternatives are workable and have merit and dynamic efficiency benefits”;
- “… consider the commercial offers made to me by Telecom and Vodafone following the Commission’s Final Report, in comparison to regulation”; and,
- “… give further consideration to how best to ensure that end-users benefit from reductions in wholesale mobile termination rates.”
The Minister also noted that “[i]n addition, as part of its reconsideration, it would be useful if the Commission could consider any other significant points made in submissions to me on the Commission’s Final Report.”
Telecom subsequently made its commercial offer public.
The Commission expects to release its draft reconsideration report and call for submissions before the end o

Author:  

Email:    

Topic:    

Content:

Related Computer Hardware Articles

• Computer Hardware Coupons:New Coupons from Dell Home!
  16 November 2005



• Computer Hardware Deals:Dell Coupon Codes November 9 To November 17
  12 November 2005



• Computer Hardware Deals:New Coupons from Dell Home November 2005
  8 November 2005



• ASUS Notebooks Offer Total Wire-Free Video Communication Solution
  26 October 2005



• Computer Hardware Deals:Dell Coupon Codes October 14 to October 28
  22 October 2005



• QUALCOMM Announces Migration to 65 nm Process Technology
  19 October 2005



• Computer Hardware News:IBM Acquires DataPower
  18 October 2005



• Computer Hardware News:KY Ho and Betty Ho Insider Trading Allegations Dismissed By Ontario Securities Commission
  14 October 2005



• 'Prodigy(TM) WiFlyer(R)' to Offer Wireless Internet and Networking to SBC Yahoo! Dial Subscribers
  12 October 2005



• Unique Data Erasure Solution to Minimize Legal Risk Associated with Retiring Computer Hardware and Hard Drive Data
  11 August 2005