Russian Telecom Official Slams Antitrust for Far East Frequency Comments

MOSCOW, Mar 1 (Prime-Tass) -- An official with the Federal Telecommunication Agency criticized Wednesday the Federal Antimonopoly Service's (FAS) recent statements on frequency allocation in Russia's Far East as "groundless."

The FAS bases its statements and comments on "unverified and subjective information," said Andrei Beskorovainy, the Federal Telecommunication Agency's Director and the State Radio Frequency Commission's Deputy Director

The antitrust regulator should take a more balanced position, Beskorovainy said.

The FAS' Director Igor Artemyev said Tuesday that VimpelCom should receive a license for radio frequencies in the Far East Federal District. "We are for issuing (VimpelCom) the license and we consider the refusal groundless," Artemyev said.

The Federal Telecommunication Agency has repeatedly said that it is working on freeing up radio frequencies in the district, Beskorovainy added.

In 2005, VimpelCom, seeking to get the license, filed a complaint with the FAS against the State Radio Frequency Commission, after the frequency allocation body has many times refused to give a license to VimpelCom.

In the complaint, VimpelCom said that the State Radio Frequency Commission has refused to provide the company frequencies to operate in the Far East Federal District although the commission planned to issue licenses to other operators.

VimpelCom's move to file the complaint was apparently prompted by various rumors and media reports that the frequency commission may issue Far East licenses without auctions or tenders. However, the commission did not issue any licenses for the Far East Federal District last year.

On February 22, FAS suggested that the commission should decide on allocating frequencies in the Far East Federal District after the FAS completes considering VimpelCom's complaint.

At the moment VimpelCom operates in only four of 13 regions in the Far East Federal District, which has the lowest penetration rate among the seven federal districts in Russia. Of Russia's 143 million people, the Far East Federal District's population accounts for slightly more than 6 million people.

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Posted to the site on 1st March 2006