Quiet for now please, Vodafone is on line

Mobile termination rates should be confidential and are not up for public debate, Vodafone says.

"The information we've given the [Commerce] commission was given under the assumption that the information would be kept confidential while the negotiations are under way," Vodafone spokeswoman Leigh Owens said yesterday.

On August 31, Vodafone, the country's largest mobile phone provider, applied to the High Court to stop the commission from making public the voluntary rate cut it offered the Government. Telecom and Vodafone offered to voluntarily cut termination rates in order to ward off government regulation.

Mobile termination fees are charged by mobile companies to fixed-line operators such as Telecom to end calls on their networks.

These rates run on average 27c a minute and are a major factor in the high cost of mobile phone rates in New Zealand.

Telecom made its voluntary rate cuts public in mid-August.

"We were willing to pass on 100 per cent of the reduction to customers," Telecom spokesman John Goulter said. "So we thought there's nothing to gain by being secretive."

Telecom was charging 26c a minute but this month dropped that rate by 2c. The rate cut is part of a larger deal to incrementally lower rates to 18c a minute by 2009.

Unlike Telecom, which offers a range of services from landlines to mobile phones, Vodafone is solely dependent on mobile phone revenue.

Owens said she could not comment on what impression Vodafone's 1.9 billion customers might have after hearing the company was trying to hide its termination rates from the public.

"We don't want Vodafone drawn into an open public debate on the issue while the commission needs to do its job," she responded.