7 June 2001
Autorité de régulation des télécommunications (ART) has published today guidelines regarding the pricing of the interconnection fees and in particular the termination charges billed by mobile operators with significant market power (SMP) on the national interconnection market.
This document was built in consultation with sector players, and in particular mobile operators. ART also consulted all the other members of the Interconnection Committee.
- Setting the rules and explaining the conditions of applying the legal framework
The purpose of these guidelines is to:
- Determine the rules to be applied to SMP mobile operators as far as cost orientation of their termination charge is concerned. ART has declared two mobile operators with significant market power in 2000 and 2001, that is France Télécom Mobiles and SFR.
- Put in place a system for regularly examining the accounts of these SMP mobile operators in order to obtain objective elements allowing ART to evaluate the economy of the mobile sector and the degree of respect of European directives, which state that interconnection fees must be cost oriented for these operators.
- The mobile termination charge is the main component of the retail price of fixed-to-mobile calls.
- The goal: a controlled decrease in the price of incoming calls
Besides the explanation of the conditions of application of the legal framework, ART has two other goals in publishing its guidelines:
- to ensure that, following the two price decreases by 20% for incoming calls in 1999 and 2000, in accordance with ART decisions, the interconnection charge filled SMP operators mobile does indeed reflect changes in costs ;
- to provide ART, through a detailled review, with the means of verifying that costs are justified for the mobile operator's interconnection charge.
- These guidelines have no legal force, nor do they deprive ART of its right to appreciate the rate and progressiveness of their implementation.
