I received this email this morning. Lets cut the cost of mobile calls and put pressure on Ofcom to scrap the ‘termination rate’

I’ll let the following text explain in more detail.

The FSB

I am writing to tell you about the latest FSB campaign that will save you and your business money through lower phone bills. But it needs your help for us to succeed and all it will take is a couple of clicks (get the ”terminate the rate” document here)

The FSB has joined up with BT and 3, to persuade phone regulator Ofcom to reduce the cost of fixed and mobile phone calls made to a different operator than your own, down to the level of what it really costs – less than a penny a minute.

At the moment each mobile operator is allowed, by an Ofcom regulation, to charge a massive mark-up above the actual cost. Originally this was to enable mobile phone networks to be built when they had no customers of their own, but now that’s been done it is becoming easy profit for them – at our expense. This mark-up, called a ‘Termination Rate’, is set at around 5p for every minute of a call to a mobile phone, yet the real cost is less than a penny. This would allow real competition and save you money.

Ofcom is currently reviewing this regulation so we have a real opportunity to secure a reduction in Mobile Termination Rates in the UK so that it’s cheaper for you to use your phone. Which is why we’ve set up a campaign.

Our campaign is called ‘Terminate the Rate’ and is being run by a coalition of organisations of which The FSB is proud to be a launch partner along with BT, mobile phone operator 3, the GMB trades union, Carers UK, price comparison site Moneysupermarket.com, and the National Union of Students.

Since the launch, many more organisations have also joined, including Age Concern/Help the Aged, and the Post Office. There are now 65 organisations supporting ‘Terminate the Rate’ including 40 local authorities. A full list of supporters is in the attached newsletter, along with more information about the issue.

We know how much it will help our members, especially those who have to make many calls to mobile phones. And because a reduction in MTRs will help consumers as well as businesses with their phone bills, your customers will all have more money available to spend.

We’ve already had over 125,000 people sign our electronic petition atwww.terminatetherate.org and our campaign is backed by 262 Members of Parliament who have signed a motion in Parliamentcalling for this change.

And I’d love you to add your business’ name to our campaign by sending an email to: enquiries@terminatetherateblog.org

Please just include your business name and address and a contact name. We’ll include you as a supporter of the campaign in our submission to Ofcom.

And if you could forward this email to any other business contacts you have it would be fantastically helpful. The more support we get the more chance we have of succeeding.

So thanks very much for your help – remember, if enough people sign up, we can win the campaign and all get those cheaper phone calls.

John Wright
Chairman
FSB

http://www.fsb.org.uk/onlineadmin/emailsee.asp?id=25574&openview=1

About the FSB:-

The FSB is non-profit making and non-party political

The Federation of Small Businesses is the UK’s largest campaigning pressure group promoting and protecting the interests of the self-employed and owners of small firms. Formed in 1974, it now has 215,000 members across 33 regions and 230 branches.

The lobbying arm – led by the Westminster Press and Parliamentary office – applies pressure on MPs, Government and Whitehall and puts the FSB viewpoint over to the media. The FSB also has Press and Parliamentary Offices in Glasgow, Cardiff and Belfast to lobby the devolved assemblies. Policy Managers work alongside Regional Development Agencies to further FSB influence at a regional level.