The Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) has levied a total 38.1 million ruble ($1.30 million) in fines on Russia's top three largest mobile operators Mobile TeleSystems (MTS), MegaFon and VimpelCom for excessive roaming tariffs, a service official told RIA Novosti on Tuesday.
"MTS has been fined for 21.892 million rubles, VimpelCom for 12.018 million rubles and MegaFon for 4.194 million rubles," the official said.
The FAS started antimonopoly proceedings for roaming services overpricing in early 2010 saying the companies abused their dominant position on the market. The service has said the 'Big Three' operators' margin on roaming services amounted to 59% on average, while damage from their excessive pricing in 2009 exceeded three million rubles.
The firms agreed then to slash tariffs in the CIS by 33.4-50%, GPRS services and roaming prices in Russia by 60-66.7%.
In January, FAS head Igor Artemyev told Prime Minister Vladimir Putin that he considered prices for international and internal roaming services to be still very high. Putin said work to cut the tariffs should be continued.
MOSCOW, February 22 (RIA Novosti)
