Megafon may face competition investigation over roaming price hike ⋆

Megafon may face competition investigation over roaming price hike

Russian federal competition regulator FAS has found signs of a violation of the Law on Competition in Megafon’s provision of international roaming services, reports Tdaily.ru. megafon roaming price

The regulator has postponed a final decision on starting an investigation into the issue.

Within a week, the FAS will expect a report on the fulfillment of this requirement, otherwise, the service will initiate a case against the MTS for the violation of the anti-monopoly legislation.

The investigation would be related to an increase in base international roaming rates by Megafon in December 2016. The increase in prices for calls to 198 destinations varied from 16 percent to 230 percent. The growth in data rates in 67 destinations ranged from 25 percent to 2,200 percent. megafon roaming price

At the same time, the head of the Communications and Information Technologies Department of the Federal Antimonopoly Service of Russia, Elena Zaeva, clarified that the Tele2 regulator decided to extend the deadline for the execution of the prescription because the operator already has 80% of all subscribers using roaming services at home.

At the moment, Tele2 says that about 80% of the operator’s tariff plans do not contain roaming surcharges. In addition, in a number of regions, including Moscow, on “heavy” packet tariffs, outgoing voice calls to other operators’ telephones are billed as in the home region. At all other tariffs, Tele2 subscribers now have an option that allows them to zero all incoming calls and minimize the difference in the cost of outgoing calls when moving between regions.