MegaFon to Appeal Regulator's Ruling to Reduce Fees for Minor Cos

MOSCOW, Nov 27 (Prime-Tass) -- Russia's third largest mobile operator MegaFon plans to file an appeal against the Federal Antimonopoly Service's (FAS) ruling that the operator must reduce interconnection tariffs for minor operators, MegaFon's Press Office Director Marina Belasheva told Prime-Tass Monday.

MegaFon has not yet made the reduction for minor operators, she said, adding that it must confirm with the regulator by December 25 that it is complying with the ruling.

On November 23, the FAS said that MegaFon had until November 25 to offer minor operators the same tariff that has been offered by MTS and VimpelCom.

The regulator initiated an antimonopoly case against the three operators in August. The FAS' probe found that the companies had agreed to set an inter-operator fee of 0.95 rubles per minute for incoming calls among themselves, while charging other operators 1.1 rubles per minute, the FAS said earlier. The move would force smaller mobile operators to overhaul their tariffs and forgo cheaper tariff plans, the regulator said, adding that the pricing violated the country's competition law.

In October, the regulator found the three companies guilty of violating antitrust legislation, but the case against VimpelCom and MTS was immediately closed as the two companies agreed to reduce the fee for minor operators to 0.95 rubles per minute.

(26.5199 rubles - U.S. $1)

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Posted to the site on 27th November 2006