Mobile phone wholesale voice termination charges : determination, Hutchison 3G UK Limited v Office of Communications, case 1083/3/3/07, British Telecommunications plc v Office of Communications, case

On 27 March 2007 the Office of Communications (Ofcom) published a "Statement on Mobile Call Determination" (the MCT Statement), which set out the conclusions of its review of the market(s) for the supply of wholesale mobile voice call termination (MCT).

MCT is the service necessary to connect a caller with the intended mobile recipient of a call on a different network.

Ofcom concluded that charge controls should be imposed on the supply of MCT by each of the five mobile network operators (MNOs) and should apply to voice call termination whether on 2G or 3G networks.

Charge controls had not previously been imposed on calls terminated on 3G networks.

Both H3G and BT brought appeals against the MCT Statement to the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT).

This report, which was submitted to the CAT, outlines the Competition Commission's (CC) report into the price control matters in the BT and H3G appeals.

The report outlines the key submissions and pieces of evidence in relation to each of the points the CC considered. The report answers a number of questions determined by the Reference, such as: whether Ofcom had erred for specific reasons given by the parties; how any such errors could be corrected; and, a determination as to any consequential adjustments to the level of the price controls.

As part of this determination the CC acquired Ofcom's MCT cost model and externality surcharge model, received written arguments and evidence from the parties, issued requests where they needed further information, and issued provisional determinations for comment.

Competition Commission Reports: For more reports from the Competition Commission (CC), please visit the dedicated Competition Commission Reports page within our Business & Finance area.