MSP calls on mobile phone firms to act

CITY Labour MP Mark Lazarowicz has called on mobile phone operators to act quickly to cut the charges they make for connecting a call from another network.

He was reacting to an Ofcom review proposing the charges – known as termination rates – should be reduced to 0.5p per minute but not until 2015.

Mr Lazarowicz, MP for Edinburgh North & Leith, said: "I welcome Ofcom's proposals but not the speed at which they are to be implemented.

"Mobile termination rates are also ten times those for fixed lines, which means older people in particular lose out when ringing friends and family from a landline.

"This is an area where innovations are taking place all the time so there is no reason why we should have to wait so long for change to take place."

He said that he has already written to Ed Richards, Ofcom's chief executive, urging him strongly to press ahead quickly so that the public could benefit from the lower rates well before 2015.