Memo: Telecoms: Commissioner Reding welcomes commitment of Italy’s telecoms regulator AGCOM to further reduce mobile termination rates as an ‘important step in the right direction’

In a high-level visit to Brussels, Corrado Calabrò, the president of the Italian telecoms regulator AGCOM (Autorità per le Garanzie nelle Comunicazioni) offered important commitments to EU Telecoms Commissioner Viviane Reding to bring the regulation of mobile termination rates in Italy in line with European law and best European practice. If fully implemented, these commitments could end concerns of Commissioner Reding on the level and partial asymmetry of mobile termination rates in Italy. In a letter sent on Monday, the Commission had asked AGCOM to review its proposed price caps on mobile termination rates for Telecom Italia, Vodafone, WIND and H3G Italia which were considered not in line with the principles of cost orientation and effective competition. Already, the Commission has observed a continued pattern of inconsistency in regulatory approaches on termination rates across the 27 Member States. These differences cannot be explained by different national circumstances alone, but by different costing models, benchmarks and glide paths chosen by national regulators. In June, the Commission published a draft Recommendation on the regulatory treatment of fixed and mobile termination rates, which reiterated clear and consistent principles for national regulators on the relevant costs to be taken into account when they analyse their termination markets and set tariff obligations. The commitments offered by the Italian telecoms regulator took into account the approach recommended by the Commission, leaving open the potential for further steps towards cost-orientation once the approach is fully implemented.

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