Representatives of the Slovenian GSM network, Vega filed an official complaint to the telecoms regulator, the Telecommunications, Broadcasting and Post Agency, reporting on breaches of the Telecommunications act. "We are doing this to ensure that Slovenian legislation is enforced and to enable competition in the mobile market," said Vega general director Julien Coustaury after filing the complaint at the Agency.
In the complaint Vega denounces breaches of articles 75 and 77 of the Telecommunication act. It claims operators that have Significant Market Power status are in breach by not formulating their prices on the base of cost as the legislation clearly directs. It also requests for the Agency to remove the differential between on-net and off-net tariffs, which, as the complaint shows, is not based on economic grounds but serves only the purpose of the competitor network, Mobitel to retain its current market share. "By engaging in this tariff policy," the report says, "Mobitel is inhibiting fair competition and abusing its dominant position in the Slovenian market, and is thus also in breach of its service license."
High ranking EU officials have recently called for "overnight changes" and "political will" to achieve effective regulation of the Slovenian telecommunications market. They were also informed of the complaint. "We expect swift and decisive reaction from the Agency. Our goal is to compete fairly in a truly liberalized market, in-line with Slovenia's EU accession requirements" said Coustaury.
The agency now has up to 10 weeks to reply to Vega's complaint. At the same time, Vega is in the process of filing a similar complaint to Office of Competition Protection."
Posted to the site on 25th April 2003
Posted to: www.cellular-news.com/story/8757.php