Mobile operators face call-charge clampdown

Mobile phone companies could face a clampdown in the new year on the high cost of calls.

That is when the results of a year-long inquiry by business watchdog the Competition Commission will be released.

Mobile phone operators have been artificially inflating bills by around £200m a year and the Commission will recommend to Oftel that call charges are slashed by up to 20 per cent, according to leaked figures published in the Daily Mail.

The report is expected to find that operators are charging up to 50p a minute for peak-time calls when the wholesale cost is just 15p.

The Commission will request that calls between rival networks are reduced by 14 per cent to 43p, and for calls to mobiles from landlines to be cut by 20 per cent to around 16p a minute.

The report's findings are due to be submitted to Oftel on 6 January 2003.

When contacted by vnunet.com a spokesman for the Competition Commission said he was unable to confirm or deny the leaked figures before the publication of the report.