£800m savings for mobile phone users

Orange and One2One are to face tough new regulatory controls as part of an £800 million package of savings for mobile phone users, it was announced today.

Price controls already in place for Vodafone and BT Cellnet are to be extended to all four operators in an effort to curb costs of calls to mobiles from fixed line phones or rival networks.

The proposals are set out by the telecommunications watchdog Oftel in a review of competition in the mobile phone market and price controls for calls to mobile phones.

David Edmonds, director general of telecommunications for Oftel, said the new charge controls would save consumers an estimated £800 million over four years.

"As the caller pays the price of calling a mobile phone and has no choice about the network to which the call is being made, there is minimal incentive on operators to reduce termination charges," he said.

"Over the last three years operators' costs have continued to fall and call volumes have increased.

"As a result Oftel believes that termination charges are still above costs."