IRELAND’S THREE largest mobile phone operators, Vodafone, O2 and Meteor, have agreed to reduce the wholesale cost of connecting a call to their networks to 5c by 2012.

The voluntary reduction equates to a reduction in charges of 47 per cent over the next three years and could save consumers €100 million annually from 2010 onwards, according to regulator ComReg who announced details of the reductions yesterday.

The reductions are in mobile termination rates (MTRs), which are the charges a mobile operator makes to another operator, fixed or mobile, to route a call to its network.

Although there is no legal obligation for the operators to pass the reductions on to consumers, it is likely that call costs will drop.

ComReg said a combination of regulatory interventions and competition in the mobile sector had reduced bills in recent years.

It said the average monthly bill fell by 23 per cent from €54.00 at the end of 2006 to €41.20 at the end of last year. A recent European Commission report found the average cost of a mobile call in Ireland is 11c compared to the EU average of 23c.

From April 1st next, Vodafone and O2’s MTRs will fall to 7.8c while Meteor’s will drop to 9.4c. The three have agreed to further staggered reductions between then and 2012. Vodafone and O2 will reduce to 5c on April 1st that year while Meteor’s MTR will hit that level on October 1st, 2012.

ComReg chairman John Doherty said: “These reductions by the mobile operators should deliver significant cost savings to Irish consumers over the next three years and ensure Ireland remains competitive among its European peers.”

Ronan Lupton, chairman of Alto, the representative body for alternative telcos, also welcomed it but felt more could have been done. “It is well overdue for both consumers and telecom operators. However, 47 per cent falls short of the European Commission target rate of 3.4c.”

The three operators had 93.6 per cent of the 5.3 million mobile subscriptions in Ireland at the end of last year, according to ComReg data.