Russian Court Rules MegaFon Must Cut Fee for Minor Mobile Cos

MOSCOW, Feb 28 (Prime-Tass) -- The Moscow Arbitration Court on Wednesday ruled that Russia's third largest mobile operator MegaFon must reduce the fee for incoming calls from minor operators to 0.95 rubles per minute.

The court rejected MegaFon's appeal against a ruling of Russia?s Federal Antimonopoly Service, which in October 2006 found the operator guilty of violating antitrust legislation by setting higher inter-operator tariffs for incoming calls from some mobile operators.

The antitrust regulator investigated Russia's "big three" mobile operators - MTS, VimpelCom and MegaFon - and found that the companies had agreed to set an inter-operator fee of 0.95 rubles per minute for incoming calls among themselves and a fee of 1.1 rubles per minute for other wireless operators.

The case against MTS and VimpelCom was immediately closed after the companies agreed to reduce the fee for minor operators to 0.95 rubles per minute. MegaFon chose to appeal, saying that inter-operator fees are not regulated by law.

The operator said Wednesday it intended to challenge the court's ruling in the Ninth Arbitration Court of Appeals. "We are still convinced that the decision of the Federal Antimonopoly Service contradicts the law," Alexei Nichiporenko, MegaFon's first deputy general director, was quoted as saying in a statement.

MegaFon is Russia's third largest mobile operator and the only one with licenses for all of the country?s 86 regions.

(26.1599 rubles ? U.S. $1)

End"

Posted to the site on 28th February 2007