Further drop in mobile telephony termination rates this fall

Starting this fall, the termination rates in mobile telephony will be axed by 24 percent to 3.07 eurocents per minute, this being the second time that the maximum threshold of these tariffs is axed, after March.

Termination rates are the price paid by a telecom company to another telecom operator for finishing its customers’ calls in the latter’s network. This rate can be found on the bill paid by the customer who makes the call.

The operators targeted by this regulation are Cosmote Romanian Mobile Telecommunications, Orange Romania, Romtelecom, RCS & RDS, Telemobil and Vodafone Romania.

Information from the telecom authority shows that the market of electronic communications reached a value of EUR 3.5 billion.

Overall revenues obtained by telecom operators from the termination of voice calls reached EUR 0.47 billion, representing 13 percent of the overall value of the market of electronic communications. In March, the termination rates were taken down by 19 to 30 percent.

The total number of active users of mobile telephony was 23.4 million at the end of 2011, down 4 percent compared to 2010.

The number of active prepay card owners decreased by 6 percent last year to 14.05 million while the number of postpay customers slightly went down by 3 percent to 6.42 million.

Also, the number of postpay contracts closed by companies increased by 5 percent, compared to 2010, reaching 2.94 million.

The penetration rate of mobile telephony at the end of 2011 was 123 percent, calculated based on the preliminary results of the census carried out in 2011.