Association of operators of telecommunication (ATS), representing small regional companies, complained to the Roscomnadzor and Rossvyaz that the “big four” mobile operators overprice to pass voice traffic in their networks. This service, according to market participants, costing them 20 billion rubles per year. The solution they see state regulation of prices, but the “big four” insists on market relations.AOTS sent in Roscomnadzor and Rossvyaz letter (a copy is in “Kommersant”) with a request to include the “big four” (MTS, MegaFon, VimpelCom, Tele2) in the register of significant operators. According to the authors, the “big four” deliberately overstates the wholesale price to pass voice traffic for smaller operators who purchase it for calls of subscribers of landline handsets to mobile. For subscribers of the largest mobile operators minute voice costs an average of 0.8 rubles, whereas in the wholesale inter-operator market, the price can reach of 1.89 rubles, said in a letter to OTS. The inclusion of the Quartet in the registry (there are Rostelecom and regional operators) will allow you to adjust these rates at the state level.In OTS at the time of last conference consisted of about 20 operators, mostly offering fixed telephony in the regions. The telephone capacity of the Association’s members — about 100 thousand rooms.To enable operators in the register of significant indicates AOTS, there are two reasons: the ability to skip them at least 25% of the traffic in Russia and affiliations other significant operator. First, according to the authors, may include MTS, MegaFon and VimpelCom, the second — at Tele2, owned by “Rostelecom”.Advisor to the General Director of MTT Evgeny Chechelnitsky indicates that the situation leads to a gradual squeezing out of small players from the market. “We are constantly faced with the fact that our subscribers come the big operators, and I propose to go to them, since a call to the network operator of the “Quartet” will cost them RUB 0,8 per minute and below, and the subscribers leave,” he explains. According to him, the total costs of fixed-line operators at the services of the “big four” to pass voice traffic account for about 20 billion rubles per year.The market for regional operators is rapidly shrinking, said the Director General of the Agency TelecomDaily Denis Kuskov.”I understand the frustration of small players, as their subscribers are calling at the rooms of the big operators more than the ones on their network, which means that they are always in a precarious financial condition,” he adds.In “the Megaphone” told “Kommersant” that give other operators access to its network on a nondiscriminatory basis and consider additional regulation unnecessary. In “Vympelcom” has suggested the use of��acce “market and Pro-competitive forms of regulation, and not to introduce and support state regulation of prices” and to consider the abolition of the Institute a significant operator in principle. MTS and Tele2 have not answered the queries “y”.Lawyers and analysts assess the prospects of seeking AOTS different. According to senior associate M&A practice of the company “Lamczyk, Krupsky and partners” Artem Konstantinov, wish OTS to present “big four” as several groups of individuals collectively occupying a dominant position, it is clear that small operators, not wanting to develop their own infrastructure, trying to force the regulator to set uniform tariffs on inter-operator market. But each of the members of the “big four” acts as an independent entity and to prove their agreement or conspiracy for the establishment of protective tariffs will not be easy, he said.In the opinion of the partner of the law firm “Rustam Kurmaev and partners” Dmitry Gorbunov, things are not so simple. The lawyer indicates that the registry was established in 2005 and activities that existed at the time of the “big three” operators (MTS, MegaFon, VimpelCom) is simply not concerned, as the emphasis is on the regulation of fixed telephony. Treatment same AOTS, it does not rule may trigger an analysis of whether the left the activities of the “big four” beyond mobile, including the expense of business in the wholesale interconnection market.Nikita Korolev
