PRESS: Moscow govt says mobile connection prices rise over 6 mos

MOSCOW, Feb 9 (PRIME) -- The Moscow government’s IT department has revealed that mobile operators raised prices in August 2016–January, and five bundle tariffs became more expensive by 6–22% and none decreased, business daily Vedomosti reported Thursday.

Components of bundle tariffs also varied. Internet traffic was changed in six tariffs, according to the department, which studied offers of the country’s four biggest operators: MTS, MegaFon, VimpelCom and T2 RTK Holding.

The operators argued with the conclusions. Konstantin Prokshin, a spokesperson for T2 RTK Holding, working as Tele2, said the company has not hiked prices of bundle tariffs over the recent six months. It was the case in early 2016, but Internet traffic and the number of calling minutes were also raised.

Anna Aybasheva, a spokeswoman for VimpelCom, working as Beeline, disagreed with the department’s statement. Tariffs were changed last time in November 2016, when an option of limitless LTE appeared, but the price remained flat.

Representatives of MTS and MegaFon declined to comment.

The department’s analyst Yevgeny Alminov said the operators have reduced mobile traffic ahead of an increase in prime costs of traffic due to the data retention laws. A soaring growth of mobile traffic resulted in an ultimate load on networks.

Raiffeisenbank’s analyst Sergei Libin said the operators want to raise average revenue per user, which has been falling because of tariffs with the limitless Internet.

Mobile Research Group’s analyst Sergei Potresov said that the companies can earn now only from the Internet.

End