The European Commission (EC) calls on the Bulgarian telecoms regulator, the Communications Regulation Commission (CRC), to take action to further reduce mobile termination rates that operators charge to connect the call of another operator's customer, a letter made public Thursday states.

In 2008, mobile termination rates in Bulgaria, with 15.09 eurocent/minute, were the highest in the EU. The EU average for 2008 is 8.7 eurocent/minute. The Commission also asks CRC not to discriminate when setting the level of termination rates between fixed and mobile networks and to apply similar termination rates for mobile calls originating from other mobile and fixed networks.

"Mobile termination rates in Bulgaria are the highest in Europe. I am pleased that CRC is committed to reducing them, but more substantial short term reductions are necessary. For consumers to benefit from lower prices for calls to mobile phones, it is imperative that charges for wholesale mobile termination services are set at the level of the cost of an efficient operator, and not above," Viviane Reding, the EU Telecoms Commissioner said.

Under EU law, CRC is required to take the Commission's letter with comments into utmost account in its final decision.

In the mean time, the EC halted the penalty proceedings against Bulgaria over the 112 emergency phone number, the EC further announced. The EC also terminated the 112 penalty procedures against Romania, Slovakia, Luxembourg and Cyprus.

We need your support so Novinite.com can keep delivering news and information about Bulgaria! Thank you!