25 May 2012 14:31

Europe reluctant to lower roaming prices since Europeans rarely travel to Russia - FAS chief

MOSCOW. May 25. (Interfax) - Mobile operators in Europe are reluctant to lower prices on roaming with their Russian partners due to the fact that Europeans travel to Russia less often than Russians travel to the European Union, head of Russia's Federal Anti-Monopoly Service (FAS) Igor Artemyev said at a plenary session of the Russian State Duma on Friday.

However, Artemyev expressed satisfaction with the fact that prices for roaming have already recently been reduced between 75% and 90%.

OJSC MegaFon has cut the basic charge for international roaming, and similar reductions in some European countries have been announced by Tele2 Russia (part of the Scandinavian holding Tele2). OJSC Mobile TeleSystems (MTS) and OJSC VimpelCom have implemented payment plans that also reduce the cost of operator services in the European Union.

As a result, there has been "a reduction [of roaming charges] in certain directions of up to 10 to 15-fold," Communications and Mass Media Minister at the time Igor Schegolev said in late April.

The reduction became possible most of all thanks to intergovernmental consultations with the EU, which is working to regulate roaming charges between European states. Russia said it would join in, but "the Europeans say that they have not wrapped up this work, and it would be hard for them to turn it outwards institutionally," Schegolev said.

Russia has already signed bilateral memorandums concerning the regulation of roaming charges with a number of European countries such as Finland, Poland and Latvia, and is engaged in similar negotiations with other EU members.