TRANSPARENCY OF TELEPHONE TARIFFS (Advisory opinion)
PRESS RELEASE
The Italian Competition Authority submitted an advisory opinion to the Ministry of Post and Telecommunications Services, with regards to the lacking in transparency of certain telephone tariffs, which is likely to influence the effective development of competition in the telecommunications market.
As such, in its opinion, the Authority expressed the hope that the Ministry would take rapid and opportune measures to increase tariffs transparency to the economic advantage of consumers.
The Authority noted that the overall reduction on the telephone service rates deriving from the recent tariff decrees, seems to satisfy the needs already expressed in a previous advisory opinion concerning the review of the telephone tariffs. At the same time, however, the Staff called the Ministry's attention on the complaints filed with the Authority, since consumers met with difficulties in understanding the new mechanisms of calculating the telephone service rates. In addition, it is to be considered the lacking in clearness of the tariffs charged to the fixed telephone network users whenever they are contacted by a cellular telephone network user.
In order to exemplify the general state of uncertainty about the regulation of telephone tariffs, the Authority mentioned in its opinion the new regulation of the "local territory domestic long-distance" calls - which are calls among different city networks linked with the same "local territory" - given that the hardest reductions (by 50% less) on the service costs have been occurring in this case. Considering this profile, the regulation provided for by the tariff decrees supplies a generic definition of "local territory domestic long-distance" call, by making reference to a 10 Km-distance among the cities which are part of the same local territory. If the distance is shorter, consumers are charged the local rate, instead of the domestic long-distance rate.
Lastly, the absence of a clear-cut information on the regulation of the rates for TACS and GSM cellular services does not allow fixed telephone network users to know exactly the costs they incur. Indeed, to date, users have not been informed precisely of the real cost they incur whenever they contact a cellular telephone network user. As a matter of fact, the introductory pages of the telephone directory does not provide any information concerning the rate for calls to cellular telephone network users.