Arcep has begun a new round of analysis for wholesale fixed and mobile call termination markets, for the period running from 2017 to 2020.

To this end, Arcep is launching a public consultation on:

- The document entitled, "Scorecard on the previous round of fixed and mobile call termination regulation in Metropolitan France and its overseas markets, and future regulatory outlook"; - Its draft analysis decision on wholesale fixed and mobile call termination; - The technical-economic cost models for fixed and mobile call termination in France.

This market analysis will then be submitted to the Competition authority for an opinion, then notified to the European Commission before adopting the final decision before the end of the year.

Regulating call termination to free up exchanges between networks

The call termination (CT) rate is the fee that Operator A pays Operator B when one of Operator A's customers calls one of Operator B's customers. It pays Operator B for the cost of relaying the call on its network.

Introduced in 2002, call termination regulation has enabled, among other things, the emergence and widespread availability of unlimited calling offers in France, which are now included in most mobile plans and with most fixed operators' IP boxes.

Following through on the previous rounds of market analysis, for the period running from 2017 to 2020 Arcep intends to maintain fixed and mobile wholesale call termination, and once again to impose non-discrimination, transparency, separate accounting, cost accounting and price supervision obligations on all fixed and mobile operators.

Planned stabilisation of maximum CT rates

For 2017 to 2020, Arcep plans on a stabilisation of maximum fixed call termination rates, and a moderate decrease in maximum mobile call termination rates. Mobile CTR Fixed CTR Up to 31/12/2017 0.74 c€/min 0.077 c€/minfrom 01/01/2018 to 31/12/20180.72 c€/min From 01/01/2019 to 31/12/2019 0.70 c€/min Starting on 01/01/2020

0.68 c€/min

Access obligations: streamlining interconnection architectures to bolster innovation

Operators that pay for call termination services connect their networks to vendor operators' networks at points of interconnection that are determined by the latter. To allow client operators to take full advantage of IP technology (which offers greater capacities), Arcep believes it necessary to explicitly encourage greater efficiency by:

• Encouraging the sharing of interconnection points for fixed and mobile networks belonging to the same vendor operator, and for the networks of vendor operators belonging to the same group;
• Ensuring that the number of interconnection points required by a vendor operator corresponds only to what is necessary and sufficient for relaying call termination traffic under sufficiently secure conditions.

Stakeholders are invited to submit their feedback to Arcep before 2 June 2017.