UPDATE: Antitrust, Russian mobile firms agree to lift internal roaming

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MOSCOW, Sep 25 (PRIME) -- Dialogue of the Federal Antimonopoly Service with Russia’s four major mobile operators – MTS, MegaFon, VimpelCom, and T2 RTK Holding – on abolition of internal roaming is constructive and the sides agreed on the abolition measures, the service’s Director Igor Artemyev told reporters on Monday.

In July, the antitrust service warned the country’s four major mobile operators that they will have to abolish a groundless difference in tariffs in home region and in trips across the country, or intra-network roaming. The deadline was postponed until December 15.

“I am grateful to you, (Communications Minister) Nikolai Anatolyevich (Nikifirov), and to companies for such a constructive approach. Today we’ve agreed in general that all measures connected to abolition of roaming will be approved until the end of the year. This is a very constructive step by the companies,” Artemyev said.

The abolition of internal roaming will not lead to an increase in prices, as the government will help operators compensate losses through expansion of their business.

“We will support lifting of unnecessary barriers because companies make a step towards the consumer and lose some resources in the process. We will allow them and we will help them on behalf of the government to lift these barriers so that they expand their business and make more money due to turnover. Everyone will be happy. This is the thing on which we agreed today,” he said.

Some work will be done in January–June 2018 as the scale of changes is large. “We would like the consumer not to feel any deterioration, but to be more privileged, to be in a more profitable state than the state they are in today. This is a very important moment, we initially wanted to do this for the sake of consumer,” he said.

“The discussion (with mobile operators) is very good, very constructive, and we will continue it for the next several months, but work is already going on. Many companies have improved significantly in this direction, their progress is significant.”

Nikiforov told reporters that the Communications and Mass Media Ministry and the Federal Antimonopoly Service plan to develop solutions, including amendments to regulatory acts, until the end of 2017 so that the idea of internal roaming disappears from tariff plans of mobile operators from the beginning of 2018.

Today participants of the negotiations have agreed that the abolition of internal roaming is definitely happening, but its details will be discussed at a similar meeting in a month. “We understand that this task is technically difficult for operators, and we think that a full-scale process of a gradual switch to a new model may take the first half of 2018,” he said.

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