UPDATE 2: VimpelCom pioneers in cancelling pay for nationwide incoming calls

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MOSCOW, Aug 20 (PRIME) -- Russian mobile operator VimpelCom, working under the Beeline brand, has cancelled payments for incoming calls from other regions during trips across the country from Monday, a company spokesperson said.

Subscribers earlier paid 5 rubles per minute for such calls, which were free on older tariffs, the spokesperson said, adding that VimpelCom has become the first operator to abolish payment for incoming calls in intra-network roaming.

The home region terms are applied to other services, like the mobile Internet, which has been charged like in the home region during trips since April. Outcoming calls are charged like in the region of subscription.

Intra-network roaming applies when an operator uses various tariffs for different regions of the country. The Federal Antimonopoly Service has been persistently fighting against any type of internal roaming in the country.

A spokesperson for mobile operator MTS said, the operator “has done all necessary preparatory work and soon, from August 30, all incoming calls in trips across the country will become free for subscribers of all most popular tariffs. The Internet will be still charged without extra fees on the nationwide basis.”

Mobile operator MegaFon said it will make incoming calls free in its network from September 1.

T2 RTK Holding, a mobile operator working under the Tele2 brand, will put similar practice in operation by August 27. The company’s press secretary Olga Galushina said intra-network roaming has already been cancelled in most of its tariffs.

“From August 22, tariffs without any subscription fee will have all incoming calls free in moving across the country’s regions. By August 27, we’ll zero all incoming calls on all the other tariffs,” Galushina said.

(66.8757 rubles – U.S. $1)

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