European Commission Expresses Serious Concerns About High Mobile Rates in Estonia

The European Commission put a hold on a proposal by the Estonian Competition Authority (ECA) to impose some of the highest mobile termination rates (MTRs) in the European Union from mid-2012 until mid-2015. MTRs are the rate mobile networks charge other networks for delivering voice calls. The Commission is concerned that ECA's proposed pricing methodology does not fully follow the method set out in EU telecoms rules and will lead to excessive MTRs and ongoing consumer harm. The 2009 Termination Rates Recommendation requires cost-efficient rates to be in place by 1 January 2013. For example, ECA proposes MTRs at 3.89 euro cents per minute in the first half of 2013, well above the cost-efficient rate of around 1 euro cent per minute.