Spain Mobile Phone Charges To Keep Falling In '08 - Regulator
Tuesday July 1st, 2008 / 15h16
MADRID -(Dow Jones)- Spanish mobile phone fees are likely to continue falling in 2008, the head of the country's telecommunications regulator Reinaldo Rodriguez said Tuesday. "There is a tendency for the mobile charges to fall and this was the case in 2007; but this year they will probably fall even more," Rodriguez said in a meeting with journalists. In 2007, average mobile charges were EUR0.17 a minute, 6% less than the year before, the regulator said Tuesday in its annual report. Rodriguez said the fall in charges was a result of a European Commission clampdown on roaming fees and the Spanish regulator's reduction of wholesale termination rates, or the fees phone companies charge each other to connect calls. Spain's largest telecommunications company, Telefonica SA (TEF), has roughly 45% of the country's mobile lines, followed by Vodafone PLC (VOD) with 30.5%, while France Telecom SA's (FTE) operator Orange has 22.5%. The remaining 2% belongs to TeliaSonera AB's (TLSN.SK) Spanish unit, Yoigo, and smaller low-cost MVNO operators, which buy airtime from the larger operators. Company Web site: www.cmt.es -By Jason Sinclair, Dow Jones Newswires; 34 913958127; jason.sinclair@dowjones.com Click here to go to Dow Jones NewsPlus, a web front page of today's most important business and market news, analysis and commentary: http://www.djnewsplus.com/al?rnd=tsYHdg%2FNpAyc%2BzyVAbSVyA%3D%3D. You can use this link on the day this article is published and the following day.
