Icelandic telecoms regulator the Post and Telecommunication Administration (PTA) has published its Decision 25/2013, which will dictate the wholesale mobile termination rates (MTRs) for all of the country’s wireless operators from January 2014, via a benchmarking approach.
As previously reported by TeleGeography’s CommsUpdate, in August 2013 the PTA launched a public consultation on a draft decision to reduce MTRs, based on the implementation of a pure Long Run Incremental Costs (LRIC) model, in accordance with recommendations by the European Union (EU) and the EFTA Surveillance Authority (ESA). The consultation was based on a previous decision to reduce the charges from the rate of ISK4.00 (USD0.03) per minute to ISK1.64 (USD0.01) per minute from 1 July 2013 for mobile network operators Siminn, Vodafone Iceland, Nova, Alterna and re-seller Tal. The ESA concluded in November 2012 that applying benchmarking practices in countries within the European Economic Area (EEA) would be justifiable, but stated at the time that there were not enough countries to conduct a price comparison. The Committee approved the reduction in MTRs to ISK1.64 per minute to take effect from July 2013 and ordered the PTA to take a new decision in the autumn of 2013, which would determine the maximum termination rates for 2014.