MegaFon, VimpelCom raise prices of some tariffs by 10–20%

MOSCOW, Mar 17 (PRIME) -- Russian mobile operators MegaFon and VimpelCom, working as Beeline, notified part of their clients earlier in March of an increase in tariffs by 10 to 20%, users told PRIME on Friday.

A PRIME correspondent received a message from MegaFon that his individual tariff with a discount has risen by 20% since Wednesday to 600 rubles. Another MegaFon client said his tariff grew to 595 rubles from 540 rubles earlier.

MegaFon said multiple factors, such as equipment costs, expenses on network exploitation, power costs, and others, influence the tariff price. “We will make a decision based on an increase of the company’s expenses on the provision of services,” an operator representative said.

VimpelCom clients said that the operator hiked its prices to 27 rubles per day from 23.3 rubles earlier.

“A year ago the subscription fee amounted to 450 rubles per month, now it will go up to 580 (rubles),” a VimpelCom client said in a VKontakte post.

VimpelCom said the revision of tariffs involved less than 10% of the company’s clients and its average figure did not exceed the inflation rate.

MTS and T2 RTK Holding, working as Tele2, said they plan no increase in their tariffs soon.

(76.4095 rubles – U.S. $1)

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