Re: [asterisk-biz] European mobile tariffs & US tariffs

2008/9/22 Trixter aka Bret McDanel <trixter@0xdecafbad.com>

There are however carriers in europe that are starting to realize that

its insane to keep the fees high and are trying to get them lowered, as
a result you are seeing slightly better rates in some areas and some are
starting to give more free minutes and such (or priced as if they are on
the same network), although that is taking a really long time to happen
and its very slow.

Incumbent (Large) Mobile operators like the interconnect fees high.  It doesn't really matter to them because they "earn" about as much as they "spend".  So its funny money.  But its great to keep the market tied up and make it hard for new operators to get started.  So it keeps the club cozy so it can be business as usual fleecing the customers.

South Africa is a good example.  We used to have two operators, plus the fixed line telco.  Interconnect charges were at about 10 or 20c per minute (1 to 2 euro-cents).  Just before a third operator was to enter the market, they adjusted the interconnect charge up to R1.25 (10 euro-cents or so).  

Regards,

Steve