Ofcom, the British telecoms regulator, has revealed it is about to increase the fees it draws from the UK’s network providers. Ofcom charge a rate for using the mobile airwaves, but they’re now cranking up the costs by almost a factor of three. Currently it draws £64.4m in fees but this is to be up’d to a eye-watering £199.6m a year.
Under the new charges, Vodafone and O2 will see their fees more than treble from £15.6m a year to £49.8m. EE’s charges will rise from £24.9m to £75m, while Three’s bill will go from £8.3m to £25m.
A Vodafone spokesman has responded to the fee increase by saying..
They represent a significant increase when we are already investing around £1bn on our network and services this year.
I can only see this extra revenue coming from one place, us the consumer. Dear reader, what’s your thoughts?