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U.K. communications regulator Ofcom Wednesday made a number of proposals on how mobile termination rates, or the amount U.K. mobile operators charge each other to connect calls on their networks, could be set from 2011 to 2015.

"The consultation sets out six options including maintaining the current system, which has already seen rates come down year on year, to a system where the customer's own network is responsible for all costs of making and receiving phone calls," the regulator said.

Ofcom added the possible outcome of the deregulatory option - where termination regulation will be removed from mobile operators - is uncertain.

Current termination rate rules will expire in March 2011.

Reductions in mobile termination rates directly hurt the revenue of mobile carriers. The European Commission telecommunications chief Viviane Reding has pushed to reduce the rates across Europe, arguing they don't reflect the cost of providing the service.

Company Web site: www.ofcom.org.uk

-By Erica Herrero-Martinez, Dow Jones Newswires; 44 20 7842 9353; erica.herrero-martinez@dowjones.com