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Three Russian mobile firms to slash prices - Putin

ICT Materials 20 October 2010 14:49 (UTC +04:00)
Three Russian mobile telecommunications companies will slash prices on some voice and data services after the government accused them of breaking antimonopoly rules, the government said on Wednesday.
Three Russian mobile firms to slash prices - Putin

Three Russian mobile telecommunications companies will slash prices on some voice and data services after the government accused them of breaking antimonopoly rules, the government said on Wednesday, DPA reported.

"When I see the documents you have presented, I assume that this is a significant price cut for roaming. The voluntary price cuts in the roaming segment will be for voice services by 1.5-2 times, for SMS messages transmission by three times, and for mobile Internet services by two to four times," Prime Minister Vladimir Putin told Telecommunications Minister Igor Shchyogolev and Federal Antimonopoly Service head Igor Artemyev.

He said the companies would reduce prices for roaming and voice services by 33.4-50 percent, on short text messages by 66.7 percent, on mobile Internet by 50-75 percent. Putin did not list the companies.

Shchyogolev said that his ministry had analyzed prices and found them inflated.

"We came to the conclusion that, indeed, the rates are significantly higher than they should be, and higher than economically justified," Shchyogolev added.

Artemyev said the Antimonopoly Service had held an investigation.

"We have considered this issue, filed an antimonopoly investigation...We accused the companies of inflating prices and creating so-called monopolistically high prices. We have gathered evidence. Together with the Communications Ministry, we persuaded the companies to ...voluntarily reduce roaming rates," said Artemyev.

Artemyev said the companies would cut prices no later than December 1 while some companies would do that earlier.

He said the companies intended to send letters to their colleagues in Western Europe and North America proposing a price reduction for international roaming not only within the CIS, but in the entire world.

"We did the work simultaneously with the competition authorities of other countries, especially Kazakhstan. And Ukraine and other CIS countries were also involved," Artemyev added.

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