ARCEP submits to public consultation its draft decision on supervised mobile call termination rates in the overseas markets for 2013

Paris, 26 July 2012

After having examined the responses to the public consultation that ran from 16 March to 22 April 2012 on the technical-economic cost models for the network of a generic efficient mobile operator in the Antilles-Guyana and Reunion-Mayotte regions, today ARCEP is submitting to consultation a draft decision on overseas operators' supervised mobile call termination rates for the period running from 1 January 2013 to 31 December 2013.

A third cycle of regulation for mobile call termination

In the overseas markets, regulation for mobile call termination (CT), which has resulted in a progressive decrease in wholesale prices, has created propitious conditions for the development of competition and the introduction of retail market offers that include an ever-increasing number of calling minutes, and calls to mobile numbers on any network.

The ARCEP Decision of 2 November 2010 stipulated the ceiling CT rates that mobile operators in the overseas markets could charge from 1 January 2011 to 31 December 2012, and indicated that the Authority would set the ceiling rates for 2013 in a subsequent decision.

It also stipulated that, in accordance with the European Commission recommendation, ceiling rates were to come in line with the long-run incremental costs of a generic efficient operator in each of these overseas markets, by 1 January 2013 at the latest.

Target rate of 1 eurocent a minute for Antilles - Guyana and Reunion - Mayotte as of 1 January 2013

Based on the results of the cost models for the network of a generic efficient mobile operator in the Antilles - Guyana and the Reunion - Mayotte regions, the Authority is proposing a maximum mobile call termination rate equal to one eurocent a minute, to be applied by the main operators in these two regions as of 1 January 2013.

ARCEP considers that this rate will create economic conditions that enable the development of high-volume mobile calling products in the overseas markets and offers that include fixed-to-mobile calls, as has been the case in mainland France. In addition, reducing the gap between mobile call termination rates in the overseas markets and mainland France (down to only 0.2 eurocents a minute) should pave the way for having calls to mobile numbers in the overseas departments and territories included in flat rate plans sold in Metropolitan France.

At the outcome to the public consultation, the draft decision will be notified to the European Commission and to the NRAs of all of the other EU Member States, after which ARCEP will be able to adopt its final decision in the autumn.