* Impact will be "affordable"
* Assumes regulator will be reasonable (Adds CEO comments, detail)
BARCELONA, Nov 19 (Reuters) - Deutsche Telekom said it expects to cope with cuts in fees operators can charge for connecting calls, in an effort to assuage investors' concerns that profit margins could take a hit.
Chief Executive Rene Obermann said on Friday it was difficult to predict by how much the German telecoms regulator would cut interconnection fees but said: "Whatever happens, the impact on us will be affordable."
The federal telco watchdog is expected to announce its decision by the end of the month and the new rates operators can charge each other will go into effect Dec 1.
In June 2008, the European commission published guidelines recommending that mobile termination rates be cut by 70 percent, with the cuts being phased in by 2011.
"The German regulator has always taken quite a reasonable approach to (wireless) regulation," Obermann told the Morgan Stanley annual TMT conference in Barcelona.
"I don't think the German regulator would just blindly follow these very aggressive suggestions from the European regulation side," Obermann said.
Last year, the regulator cut rates 16 percent to 6.59 cents per minute for Deutsche Telekom and Vodafone. Rates for KPN's German unit E-Plus and Telefonica's O2 Germany were cut 17 percent to 7.14 cents.
Mobile termination rates (MTR) have historically been higher than fees for fixed lines because mobile operators have argued that the cost of building and maintaining mobile networks made higher rates necessary.
Regulators set the fees and some investors fear the cuts could hit profit margins. According to credit rating agency Fitch the cuts are expected to lower European mobile operators' service revenue growth annually by between 2 percent and 3 percent over the next three to four years.
Obermann addressed these concerns saying: "The net effect on us is not going to be as dramatic even though there is a net effect.
"We can digest MTR cuts," he added.
(Reporting by Nicola Leske; Editing by Erica Billingham)