MOBILE phone companies have been told to reduce their charges. The Office of Utility Regulation says telephone operators must cut mobile termination rates from 1 April and fix them for three years.

‘While this is an operator-to-operator charge, it is a substantial component of the cost of mobile calls. I would hope that fixed and mobile consumers will now benefit from the reduction by way of reduced call charges.

‘We believe this is a proportionate means of achieving a good outcome for mobile customers and look forward to seeing the mobile operators reflect this in their charges to customers,’ said Jon Buckland, director of policy at the OUR.

Cable & Wireless marketing manager Steve Eldridge said the charge made no difference and that local mobile customers enjoyed call charges among the lowest in Europe.

‘We do not want anyone to get the wrong impression from the OUR’s announcement. The real issue is not inter-operator charges, it is how much customers have to pay to use their mobiles. If you look at our actual call charges, you will see that our mobile services are already giving islanders excellent value for money.’

The OUR wants to see the charge reduced to an average of 6.75p per minute. It said Guernsey has one of the highest 31 countries surveyed.

Orange is one of the UK’s largest operators and charges pay-as-you-go customers up to 40p per minute to call another mobile network.

C&W’s start at 5p per minute, with calls to a Wave mobile costing 18p per minute.

‘If you look at what we offer in terms of call packages and charges, it is exceptional value, even though we have a potential market of only 60,000 people compared to 60m. in the UK,’ said Mr Eldridge.

‘We would be delighted if the OUR wanted to compare these costs, because that will be a far more useful comparison.’

Nobody from Wave was available to comment.