Tariff rebalancing: International experience

1
Tariff rebalancingInternational experience
Dr Tim Kelly, ITU Workshop on international
settlement reform and the costing and pricing of
telecom services, Hanoi, 11-13 December 2000
The views expressed in this paper are those of
the author and do not necessarily reflect the
opinions of the ITU or its Membership. Dr Kelly
can be contacted by e-mail at Tim.Kelly_at_itu.int
2
Agenda

• Supply and demand
• The functions of the tariff
• Pricing strategies
• Approaches to pricing
• Demand-based
• Cost-based
• Market-driven
• Tariff structures
• Tariff rebalancing

3
The functions of pricing

• To forge a link between supply and demand
• To generate revenues and cover costs of providing
  service
• To convey information to customers concerning the
  service
• To provide a platform for competition

4
Demand is a function of price Teledensity and
monthly residential telephone rental (US)
15
Paying more. Demand met.
10
Supply
Monthly subscription charge (US)
Paying more. Demand not met.
5
Paying less. Demand met.
Paying less. Demand not met.
Price / Demand
-
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
Main lines per 100 inhabitants
Source ITU World Telecommunication Development
Report, 1998 Universal Access
5
Pricing strategies, selected countries Teledensity
and monthly residential telephone rental (US)
15
Barbados
Cambodia
Supply
10
Monthly subscription charge (US)
Australia
India
5
Viet Nam
Price / Demand
Thailand
Lao
-
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
Main lines per 100 inhabitants
Source ITU World Telecommunication Development
Report, 1998
6
Approaches to pricing

• Demand-based pricing
• Pricing according to what the customer is able to
  pay
• May be required by politicians (monopoly
  environment)
• Cost-based pricing
• Pricing according to what the service costs to
  supply
• May be required by regulators (regulated
  environment)
• Market-based pricing
• Pricing in order to compete with other suppliers
  in the marketplace
• May be required by shareholders (competitive
  market)

7
Reasons for cost-based pricing

• To cover the full costs of providing the service
• To recognise cross-subsidies between services and
  between users
• to eliminate them
• to make them explicit, e.g., for Universal
  Service
• To prepare for competition
• To prevent abuses of competitive position

8
Approaches to costing

• Fully-allocated pricing models (e.g., TAS cost
  model)
• total costs for providing service (including
  historical, depreciated investment costs) divided
  by the volume of service provided (e.g., minutes
  of use, number of subscribers)
• Incremental pricing models (e.g., LRIC)
• marginal cost of providing an additional unit of
  service (e.g., next minute of traffic, next
  subscriber)
• 1001 different flavours of the above

9
Traditional pricing structures

• Cross-subsidies to network access
• Connection charges cover only a fraction of costs
• Low-cost monthly rental
• Cross-subsidies to local loop
• High-cost international and long-distance charges
• Free, unmetered or low cost local calls
• Geographical and social averaging of costs
• Uniform charges for connection rental
• One price fits all

10
Market-oriented pricing structures

• Cost-oriented
• Connection charges reflect real underlying costs
• Monthly rental includes only a small element of
  usage
• Reflecting technology trends
• moving towards distance-independent tariffs
• biggest price cuts in international call charges
• Market-driven
• Tariff options for different user groups
• Discounts, special offers, promotional prices .

11
Key indicators of tariff structure

• Ratio between level of fixed and usage charges in
  average bill
• In OECD model, 33/67 for residential and 20/80
  business
• Ratio between connection charge and monthly
  subscription
• Trend is towards first rising then diminishing
  ratio
• Ratio between local call price and most expensive
  long-distance call
• In Thailand it is 181 in Iceland it is 11
• Ratio between peak and off-peak call
• Trend is towards diminishing ratio

12
Typical evolution in connection charge

• Connection charge kept well below cost
• But waiting list grows as operator unable to keep
  up with demand
• Greater differentiation
• Higher connection charges for business than
  residential
• Give subscribers change to make refundable
  deposit on future line
• Allow subcontractors to do wiring and
  installation
• Connection price more closely match costs
• Connection charge cut as waiting list falls
• In a competitive market, set price relative to
  competitors

Social
Cost-based
13
Connection charges, in US, 1999
Philippines
Residential
Malaysia
Business
Lao P.D.R.
Thailand
Business charges are the
same as residential
Indonesia
charges, unless shown
Cambodia
Sri Lanka
Viet Nam
China
0
50
100
150
200
250
Source ITU World Telecommunication Indicators
Database.
14
Typical evolution in monthly subscription charge

• Monthly fee kept well below cost
• Monthly fee includes free local calls plus rental
  of handset plus services
• Unbundling of monthly subscription
• handset rental
• local calls
• extra services, e.g., Directory inquiry
• Split between residential and business
  subscriptions
• Progressive rise towards costs

Social
Cost-based
15
Monthly subscriber charge, in US, 1999
Lao P.D.R.
Residential
Thailand
Business
Sri Lanka
Indonesia
Business charges are the
same as residential
China
charges, unless shown
Viet Nam
Malaysia
Cambodia
Philippines
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
Source ITU World Telecommunication Indicators
Database.
16
Ratio of connection charges to subscriber charge
(business)
Philippines
0.7
Malaysia
1.4
Cambodia
9.2
Indonesia
25.8
30.0
Lao P.D.R.
33.5
Thailand
39.7
Viet Nam
47.3
Sri Lanka
56.7
China
Source ITU World Telecommunication Indicators
Database.
17
Typical evolution in local call charges

• Free local call charges included in monthly
  subscription
• Limited number of free calls included in
  subscription, others charged
• Local calls timed and metered
• Size of pulse unit shortens
• Size of local call zone shrinks

Social
Cost-based
18
Cost of a 3 minute local call, in US
0.00
Philippines

0.00
Lao P.D.R.
0.01
Indonesia
0.01
China
0.02
Malaysia
0.03
Cambodia
0.03
Sri Lanka
0.08
Thailand
0.09
Viet Nam
Source ITU World Telecommunication Indicators
Database.
19
Typical evolution in long distance prices

• Highly distance sensitive charges. Long distance
  call gt100 times cost of local call
• Introduction of off-peak rates
• Reduction in number of bands
• Reduction of distance and duration elements
• Long-distance call lt3 times cost of local call

Social
Cost-based
20
As competitors gain market share ...
Long distance prices come down ...
Source ITU Asia-Pacific Telecommunication
Indicators, 1997.
21
Rebalancing in action (1) Iceland Telecom,
price of 3 minute, peak-rate call, includ. tax
1.6
1.4
Local
1.2
Medium
1
Long distance
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0
Jan-
Jul-
Jul-
Nov-
Oct-
Feb-
Sep-
Jun-
Aug-
Dec-
01-
11-
88
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
Nov-
Nov-
97
97
Source Iceland Telecom, OECD.
22
Rebalancing in action (2) SwissCom, price per
minute of local call and call to US
23
Rebalancing in action (3) Average trends in 39
major economies, in US
12
10
8
6
4
300 minutes, local calls
3 mins Int'l call to US
2
Monthly line rental
0
1990
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
Source ITU World Telecommunication Indicators
Database.
24
Rebalancing in action (4) Trends in Thailand,
in US
300 mins, local calls
14
Monthly line rental
12
3 mins Int'l call to US
10
8
6
4
2
0
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
Source ITU World Telecommunication Indicators
Database.
25
Rebalancing in action (5) Trends in price per
minute of an international call to USA
26
Conclusions

• Introduction of competition requires fresh
  approach to tariff strategy
• Under monopoly, social-pricing or demand-based
  pricing was possible
• Under competition, pricing which is not
  cost-oriented will be rapidly undermined
• Market-driven pricing means understanding
  customer requirements
• Tariff rebalancing should be gradual, but the
  best time to start was yesterday