Ministry says mobile tariffs to rise if national roaming cancelled

MOSCOW, Jul 18 (PRIME) – Russian mobile connection tariffs will rise if national roaming is cancelled, Yekaterina Osadchaya, director of the external relations department at the Communications and Mass Media Ministry, said on Tuesday.

“The abolition of roaming will entail higher mobile connection tariffs for all subscribers. Now about 7% of clients only use roaming services inside the country. If payments for roaming are cancelled, operators will be forced to redistribute expenses on servicing travelling subscribers between all clients,” Osadchaya said.

The Federal Antimonopoly Service warned four national major mobile operators – MTS, MegaFon, VimpelCom, and T2 RTK Holding – on Monday of the need to eliminate a groundless difference in tariffs in a home region and other regions of the country. The operators should revise tariffs during 14 days and notify subscribers of changes 10 days in advance.

TMT Consulting’s General Director Konstantin Ankilov said the antitrust warrant is unreasonably strict and almost unfeasible.

“The policy of roaming cancellation is clear, but when such conditions are set for the operators, it’s illogical. There is not much in it apart from crowd-pleasing,” Ankilov said. “I don’t know what the antitrust service hopes for…It could be a switch to dialogue with the operators from the position of force, or the service puts forward excessive demands to have a compromise that will be ultimately more interesting for the authority.”

Operators earn about 35 billion rubles a year on national roaming, and if it is voided, they will lose the bulk of the sum, he said.

MegaFon said that it will study the text of the antimonopoly service’s warning. Head of the operator’s press service Yulia Dorokhina said most of MegaFon’s clients use bundle tariffs and do not pay for national roaming when travelling across the country.

“It means that costs of connection services in Russia do not differ from those in a home region. Moreover, they can switch on extra options,” Dorokhina said.

Other operators declined to comment.

(59.0657 rubles – U.S. $1)

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