The announcement of the reduction of the wholesale interconnectivity call rates will now mean that players in the telecommunications industry will have to set their retail rates accordingly.
Chairman of the Commerce Commission Dr Mahendra Reddy said the existing rates are much higher than what is generally observed in other economies, and this was mainly due to the monopolies that the telecommunication companies held.
Dr Reddy adds the new retail rates will be felt by consumers soon.
The current mobile termination rate existing in the market is 28 cents per minute which with immediate effect is reduced to 23 cents.
This 23 cents per minute for a call is the wholesale rate which will now be charged by operators when calls are made from one operator's network to another network.
This basically means that the wholesale call rate per minute from a Vodafone customer to a Digicel customer and vice versa has been reduced to 23 cents with immediate effect.
Changes have also been announced for the landline termination rate.
The maximum rate now stands at 9.9 cents per minute which with immediate effect is reduced to 7.9 cents and at the end of three years will fall to 4.5 cents per minute.
Doctor Reddy said the wholesale rates will be further reduced at the end of the year and will continue to fall.
This will see further reductions in the retail call rates that customers have to pay.
Over three years wholesale interconnectivity mobile rates will fall from 23 cents to 11.5 cents per minute resulting in cheaper retail rates for customers.
Vodafone Fiji, Digicel Fiji and other operators are expected to comment this afternoon.
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Telecommunication providers expected to adjust rates
