"As a result of high mobile termination rates and for reasons of business strategy, [Bulgarian] consumers keep more than one mobile subscription in parallel," reads a Commission paper dated 25 May, entitled '15th Progress Report on the Single European Electronic Communications Market'.
Bulgaria, the poorest EU member, is still the country with the highest mobile termination charges in the EU, at more that twice the EU average. Mobile termination rates are the charges that telecoms operators impose on each other for using their networks.
As a result of EU pressure and a EurActiv article published in February 2009, the Bulgarian national telecommunications regulator, CRC, introduced measures to reduce the price gap. A 'glide path' for gradually reducing mobile termination rates was proposed, bringing Bulgarian rates down to 12.1 eurocents in October 2009 from 15.9 eurocents in October 2008.
But even those rates are more than twice as high as the EU average for October 2009, which had also fallen to stand at 6.7 eurocents. The cheapest rate of 1.95 cents is in Cyprus.
In fact, the figures clearly indicate that the EU average keeps sinking more quickly than Bulgarian rates.
Bulgaria has three major mobile phone operators: Mtel, Globul and Vivacom. Mtel holds a 49.4% market share, Globul 37.5 and Vivacom 13.1. No national roaming exists between the mobile operators.
The high termination rates partly explain the slow growth rate of the smallest mobile operator, explains the European Commission.
The mobile penetration rate in Bulgaria is still among the highest in the EU - 138.9% in October 2009 (up from 137.4% in October 2008), compared to an EU average of 121.9%, the Commission writes. This also reflects the fact that many consumers hold more than one subscription.
Bulgaria long resisted calls to introduce portability (transferring one mobile telephone number to a subscription with another provider), only making the service available in April 2008. By October 2009, very few numbers had been moved – just 0.5% of the total number of mobile subscribers, the Commission notes.
Bulgarian mobile subscribers told EurActiv that they would not change their subscription even if another provider were to offer better rates. They cited corporate subscriptions contracted by their employers and the fact that family members and relatives were subscribed to the same provider among the main reasons for this.
But they added that if a particular service provided by another operator were indeed appealing, they would contract another subscription and buy another mobile phone.
On 27 May EurActiv asked the Commission whether it was planning to take measures against the high termination rates in Bulgaria.
The EU executive failed to respond before our publication deadline.
