Mobile Termination Rates cut

At long last, we have a final decision from the Commerce Commission.

The termination rate for mobile phone calls between networks is going to reduce as follows:

• Today – 15c to 17c
• Tomorrow – 7.48c
• 1 Oct 2011 – 5.88c
• 1 Apr 2012 – 3.97c
• 1 Apr 2013 – 3.72c
• 1 Apr 2014 – 3.56c

And the termination rate for text messages between networks will reduce as follows:

• Today 9.50c
• Tomorrow 0.06c

This move is long overdue, and congrats goes to the Commission and Steven Joyce who made the decision to regulate.

It will be interesting to see the impact on retail prices. It won’t be immediate, but it means we should eventually see people choosing their network based quality and price, not based on which network their friends are already on.