The Federal Anti-Monopoly Service (FAS) said in August the country's three largest mobile phone operators were charging a rate of 0.95 rubles ($0.0354) per connection, while other operators had to pay 1.1 rubles ($0.0410) for the same service, or 16% more, putting them at a disadvantage, and launched an investigation into the case.
VimpelCom, the country's second-largest mobile phone provider, which operates under the Beeline brand, said in early September it would give smaller cell phone operators a discount, and charge them the lower rate of 0.95 rubles, until the end of the year.
VimpelCom later said it would establish a flexible system of discounts (of up to 15%) for inter-regional operators as of January 1, 2007.
The country's largest provider MTS later also set its interconnection fee at 0.95 rubles for smaller operators.
The FAS concluded its investigations in October and said the three largest mobile operators had violated the law on competition by colluding to set the same interconnection fees.
However, the antimonopoly service terminated its case against MTS and VimpelCom, saying they had eliminated their legal violations.
In accordance with the decision made by the FAS, MegaFon is required to bring its interconnection fee into compliance with the tariffs charged by the other two major operators by November 25, and to avoid setting up discriminatory measures in inter-operator settlements.
If MegaFon receives payments made under previously-signed agreements, it will have to transfer illegally-gained income to the federal budget.
MegaFon said it had received the FAS ruling, and was now considering means of tackling the issue.
"I believe we will have a formalized decision by the beginning of next week," MegaFon spokeswoman Marina Belasheva said.
