Press Release: Telecoms: European Commission renews calls for lower mobile termination charges in Poland

The European Commission has again reminded Polish telecoms regulator, Urząd Komunikacji Elektronicznej (UKE), that it should not unnecessarily prolong exceptions allowing higher mobile termination charges for certain operators. Mobile termination rates (MTRs) are tariffs that mobile operators charge each other for connecting calls to their customers on their network, and are eventually included in call prices. As in a recent proposal, UKE intends to allow a new operator, CenterNet, to charge operators much more for calls to its customers than other established mobile operators. UKE would reduce these charges which are currently on average double those of its competitors in 2011 so as to match other operators' charges by the end of 2015. The European Commission wrote to UKE calling on it to follow the guidelines for setting mobile termination charges adopted in May 2009 by substantially reducing the gap between CenterNet's and other operators' charges.