(www.cellular-news.com).- A new report from Telecommunications Management Group notes that while mobile telephone subscribers surpassed fixed line subscribers globally in 2002, mobile usage significantly lags fixed line usage. The main reason is the high price of mobile calls, which are often caused by high mobile termination rates (MTRs, the cost per minute of terminating a call on a mobile network).
There is compelling evidence that mobile users in countries with low termination rates or that charge the receiving party for the call spend more time talking on their phones. For example, users in the United States, where the receiving party pays for calls, speak on their mobile phones almost 600 minutes a month, whereas users in the European Union, where the calling party is charged for the call, use their mobiles an average of 142 minutes monthly.
The report finds that the average MTR in the world was US$0.142 at the beginning of 2005. MTRs among countries that have announced phased reductions are forecast to fall below US$0.109 per minute by 2007, a decline of 19% a year. There is significant variation in MTRs around the world, with Asian rates the lowest at US$0.048 per minute.
MTR by region, 2005
US$
Asia
0.048
Africa
0.116
Americas
0.131
World
0.142
Europe
0.162
Pacific
0.200
