Mobile phone bills to rise as Ofcom triples charge for operators

If you think you are already paying too much on your mobile phone bill you may be dismayed with the news that telecoms regulator Ofcom have announced they are to triple the cost of operators using the Britain’s airways.

So, Ofcom will charge mobile phone networks a higher fee to use spectrum in the UK. Though nothing has been confirmed, it can only mean that customers of these mobile phone networks will have to be billed more to cover the rising costs.

They have announced that they will be drawing £199.6m a year from Vodafone, O2, EE and Three to use mobile bandwidth, up from the pervious and current amount of £64.4m

Originally, Ofcom wanted to raise the bill to £228.3m after being given the responsibility, by the then Conservative Lib Dem coalition government, to introduce market rates for bandwidth in 2010. That amount was strongly rejected by mobile operators, so Ofcom attempted to draw up a new plan in 2014.

Philip Marnick, Ofcom’s group director of spectrum, said: “We have listened carefully to the arguments and evidence put forward by industry, and conducted a complex and comprehensive analysis to determine the new fees.

“The mobile industry has not previously had to pay market value for access to this spectrum, which is a valuable and finite resource, and the new fees reflect that value.”