Landline to mobile call 85% drop

The price of calling mobile phones from your landline will fall by a whopping 85 per cent by April 2015, a legal tribunal has confirmed. Following years of arguments between phone companies and regulators, the Competition Appeals Tribunal (Cat) has decreed the scale of the cuts, knocking up to £800m off Britons' phone bills. The cuts, which will continue to happen progressively over the next three years will see the cost-per-minute rate fall from 4.18p to 0.65p. Costs have been falling since April last year. The final figure is even lower than the recommendation made by Ofcom, who welcomed the ruling, saying it would "reduce significantly termination rates which will bring competition and consumer benefits". Wrangling In the wake of the tribunal's verdict, Vodafone itself has warned that landline providers BT and Virgin may not be so keen to pass the savings onto its customers. In a statement, the network said: "The fixed-line operators have merely pocketed previous reductions in mobile termination rates, instead of reducing prices for customers. BT, meanwhile, has actually increased its line rental prices three times over the past year and a half." The company, which called the cuts "Draconian" says poorer customers will lose out as a result. It says it will have to compensate for lost revenue by removing subsidies for pay-as-you-go handsets.