The Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) of the Russian Federation has warned telecom operators MTS, Megafon and Beeline about charging additional fees above the subscriber’s tariff when the subscriber is located in Crimea and Sevastopol.
Subscribe to RB.RU on Telegram
The FAS report notes that since January 1, 2024, “economic conditions have been created for telecom operators to provide communication services to their subscribers in the Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol without charging additional fees at the level of the home region.”
The Antimonopoly Agency considered that such actions by operators violated the interests of subscribers and warned them to stop charging additional fees.
MTS told RB.RU that it has not yet received documents from the FAS and is not familiar with the regulator’s arguments.
“It should be noted that MTS does not have its own network in Crimea and subscribers receive services through local operators. In order for subscribers to be able to use communications on a foreign network, the company incurs additional roaming costs. Therefore, it is impossible to equate the prices for communication services that a subscriber receives at home on his own network with the prices for services on someone else’s network,” the operator’s representative explained, adding that MTS is not aware of the improvement in conditions due to 2024, which the FAS refers to.
RB.RU also sent requests to Megafon and Beeline.
Author:
Anastasia Marina
Source: RB
I am a professional journalist and content creator with extensive experience writing for news websites. I currently work as an author at Gadget Onus, where I specialize in covering hot news topics. My written pieces have been published on some of the biggest media outlets around the world, including The Guardian and BBC News.
