The UK telecoms regulator, Ofcom, has published a final statement on their latest Wholesale Voice Markets Review 2021–26 (WVMR), which among other things has set some new caps on call termination charges and deregulated other areas.
Admittedly, Ofcom’s approach to regulation of the voice calls market is distinctly less interesting than the outcome of their recent full fibre focused Wholesale Fixed Telecoms Market Review 2021-26 (here). Nevertheless, in 2019 some 200 billion minutes of calls were still made by customers using a landline (often taken as part of a broadband bundle from your ISP) or mobile service.
Likewise, the continued reliance on mobile calls in particular came to the fore at the start of the spring lockdown announced in March 2020, which saw a 10%-45% increase of mobile voice traffic across operators, compared with the period before the lockdown.
However, there’s no escaping that landline phones, in particular, have gradually given way over the past decade to greater use of cheaper mobile calling services, as well as internet messaging or VoIP based solutions. Over the next few years even the traditional landline telephone service will become entirely IP based (completion by December 2025).
Suffice to say that Ofcom’s changes are designed to reflect the above shifts, but they also recognise that people do still make calls and some changes in regulation are needed. The changes below will thus run from April 2021 to March 2026.
All of Ofcom’s decisions come into force on 1st April 2021, except their changes to the caps for fixed, mobile and 070 termination charges, which will take effect from 1st June 2021. “This is to allow providers time to notify new termination rates where necessary to comply with the new rules,” said the regulator.
In addition, BT will have six months to implement their new transparency requirements for IP interconnection to publish (1) a reference offer setting our fair and reasonable terms for IP interconnection, and (2) information on the quality of service of its provision of interconnect circuits.