Pubs urged to join battle to cut mobile rates
Licensees are being urged to join a campaign to scrap extra charges for calling mobile phones.
When calls are made to a different mobile network, or from a landline to a mobile, the phone company’s provider will charge the caller’s operator a fee. This is called a Mobile Termination Rate (MTR) and is currently around 4.7p or more per minute of the call.
Campaign group Terminate the Rate has been set up to fight this charge; it wants the regulator OFCOM to lower the rate so the saving can be passed to customers and businesses.
The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB), which counts thousands of licensees as members, is one group backing the campaign.
FSB chief spokesperson Stephen Alambritis said: “The FSB is supporting the campaign to ‘Terminate the Rate’ because lower termination rates are good for business, good for consumers and good for the economy.
“If termination rates came down to their real cost then the UK’s 4.7 million small businesses would all save on their phone bills, making them more competitive.”
The campaign petition has more than 100,000 signatures to date. To sign, or for details of how to contact your MP about the campaign, visit www.terminatetherate.org.
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