Supreme Court Upholds Legality of Fees for Fixed-to-mobile Calls

MOSCOW, Mar 23 (Prime-Tass) -- Russia's Supreme Court has upheld the legality of fees for calls from fixed-line to mobile phones, ITAR-TASS reported Friday.

Earlier this year, Stanislav Mirochnik, a lawyer and an aide to a State Duma deputy, filed a claim with the Supreme Court seeking to void a governmental ruling on local and long-distance communications. In particular, Mirochnik challenged the fees that fixed-line users subscribed to tariff plans with unlimited calling have to pay when they make calls to mobile users.

The court rejected Mirochnik's claim.

The fees were introduced in July 2006 simultaneously with the launch of the Calling Party Pays (CPP) principle. In most cases, fixed-line users pay 1.5 rubles per minute for calls to mobile phones.

(25.9709 rubles - U.S. $1)

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Posted to the site on 24th March 2007