3 October 2000
In its decision dated 20 September 2000, ART rules on a dispute between Bouygues Telecom and France Telecom regarding the interconnection conditions for routing incoming international calls, that is calls from foreign countries to Bouygues Telecom cellular telephones.
The dispute involves the remuneration paid by France Telecom to Bouygues Telecom for call termination on the Bouygues Telecom network.
The remuneration, which at end 1999 had been set at FRF 0.69 exclusive of VAT, which is significantly lower than that paid for "incoming" national calls, reflected previous agreements on distribution taxes negotiated between international incumbents. Since then, France Telecom has progressively obtained from its international partners an additional specific payment for traffic to mobile phones.
Therefore, ART set the call termination charge to the Bouygues Telecom network, for "incoming" international calls at FRF 1.05 exclusive of VAT, invoiced per second, for 2000 and FRF 1.26 exclusive of VAT for 2001. It also emphasized that it would need to align termination charges for national and international calls within a reasonable time and to within reasonable levels.
Adding to the opening on 1st November of transporter selection to mobile numbers and to the modification of mobile operator licenses with respect to retail prices for calls from fixed networks to mobile ones, this decision is a step towards a return to the common law of the mobile operator interconnection system.
