MOSCOW, August 22. /TASS/. Russian mobile operator Megafon received a notification from the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) on intranet roaming, the company told TASS. To introduce unified tariffs in intranet roaming, Megafon will need to change almost all tariffs - about 3,000 throughout the country.
"In order to fulfill FAS requirements, it takes time and significant IT resources that the company uses to solve strategic tasks," the press service of the company told TASS.
FAS said earlier it extended the deadline for all Big four telecom operators (VimpelCom, MTS, Megafon, and for Tele2) to eliminate unjustified differences in national roaming tariffs until December 15, 2017.
"All telecom operators that received the warning, expressed their willingness to execute it, and sent applications for extending the deadline to FAS. After assessing the applications, the antimonopoly authority set a new deadline for the implementation of the warning - December 15, 2017," FAS said.
At the same time, according to FAS, telecom operators must report to the antimonopoly authority every month on the progress of executing the warning.
FAS said earlier it was ready to sue telecom operators to cancel roaming charges in Russia. FAS Deputy Head Anatoly Golomolzin told reporters, "Mobile operators know FAS’ capabilities, many of them often turn to FAS as applicants in antimonopoly cases. We are ready to compete in any court, as we believe that the problem of intranet roaming and national roaming should be solved," he said.
Golomolzin added that so far FAS does not have information about the appeal of Megafon to the court on the need to cancel intranet roaming.
Russian mobile phone operator Megafon told TASS earlier that it is impossible to comply with the instructions of the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) in respect of roaming services prices, the company will send a claim to the Arbitration court.
"The position of the company has not changed: we have been providing options for our subscribers for various service plans for a long time, where the price of calls does not differ from the home region, and various options that allow optimizing the costs. Today the company will forward the claim to the court," the company told TASS.
Earlier, one of the Big Four Russian operators sent a motion to FAS to extend the deadline for implementation of the warning and adding it was ready to implement it on time.
"This is a motivated motion. We will probably decide on it by the end of the day," Golomolzin said, without specifying the operator.
Earlier FAS initiated antimonopoly cases against VimpelCom (operates the Beeline brand), MTS, Megafon, and T2 Mobile (Tele2 brand) for establishing and maintaining monopolistically high prices for national roaming communication services.
"Signs of the violation were evident in establishing and maintaining monopolistically high prices (tariffs) for communication services in national roaming and in concluding national inter-operator roaming agreements on the territory of the Russian Federation," FAS report said.
FAS initiated proceedings against every operator of the Big Four on August 3, 2017.
A meeting of the FAS commission to review cases against VimpelCom and Megafon is scheduled for September 26, 2017. The actions of MTS will be considered on September 28, Tele2 - on September 29.
MTS, Megafon and VimpelCom provide telecom services in all Russian regions, with the exception of Crimea and Sevastopol. Tele2 provides services in 65 regions of Russia.