Australia lowered the mobile termination rate, the wholesale price a mobile operator pays another for connecting calls, by 30 per cent to AUD0.0119 ($0.0086) per minute, following a public inquiry.

Rod Sims, chair of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, said starting 1 January 2021 mobile network operators will be required to charge less for providing the Mobile Terminating Access Service (MTAS), which will enable providers to pass on the savings in their retail offers to consumers.

“Mobile network operators upgrade their network technology regularly, leading to reduced costs, including the cost of the MTAS. We are expecting them to pass on their gains from more efficient technologies to consumers,” he explained.

The shutdown of 2G networks prior to 2019 has been a major driver in the reduction in the cost of the MTAS in Australia, Sims added.

“We recognise there are retail plans which allow you to make unlimited calls but our inquiry found that a significant portion of consumers heavily rely on voice calls and still pay very high usage charges. These consumers will benefit most from this decision.”

In May 2019, the watchdog proposed continuing regulating wholesale mobile voice services for an additional five years, but called for the removal of controls covering SMS termination services.