Bulgaria’s former state telecom monopoly BTC has withdrawn its ultimatum that pressed for dragging fixed-to-mobile wholesale termination prices down to mobile call termination prices by September 15.

Dnevnik daily has learnt the news from the communications regulator’s chairperson Vesselin Bozhkov, who met with representatives of the telecom and the cellphone operators.

BTC, now owned by US insurance giant AIG, ahs agreed to step back until more market data is avalable, Bojkov said. The prices will be left intact until the end of the year, but would be cut sharply from January 1, 2009.

BTC said it supports the regulator’s efforts to bring the Bulgarian market in line with European standards.

Wholesale mobile-to-mobile charges now stand at 0.25 leva a minute in peak and 0.19 leva in off-peak hours. From July 1, fixed-to-mobile wholesale rates were reduced to 0.32 leva a minute and 0.29 leva, respectively. As a consequence, BTC now charges end-users calling mobile operators 0.59 leva a minute in peak hours and 0.48 leva in off-peak hours.