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Interconnectivity rates between Fiji’s telecommunications players will be reduced by 15 to 20 percent annually over the next three years, the Commerce Commission has announced.
Commission chairman Dr Mahendra Reddy said the reductions in the wholesale rates should bring about “major reductions in retail rates for households, businesses and consumers in general”.
The current mobile termination rate of 28 cents per minute has been reduced with immediate effect to 23 cents.
It will fall to 11.5 cents at the end of the three year period as part of a “glide path approach”.
The current maximum fixed termination rate of 9.9 cents has been reduced to 7.9 cents, to fall to 4.5 cents after three years.
Reddy said that current local interconnection rates are “way above those in comparator economies around the world”.
However the commission is mindful of the need to “avoid a disproportionate disturbance to the business plans of stakeholders that have committed significant investments in telecommunications infrastructure in Fiji, as well as the need to give legal and commercial certainty to investors on long-term interconnection rates so as to manage effectively their respective businesses”.
Reddy said the development should be welcome news for telecommunications players because the creation of a single mobile termination rate and fixed termination rate implied a level playing field.
He said telecom players had been informed of the development and the commission’s expectations.
