The final abolition of roaming moved FAS in 2018

Photo: Gazeta.ru



The Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) of Russia has decided to extend the discussion of the cancellation of intranet roaming with the Big Four operators. The final decision should be made by the end of 2017, Prime reports .



The head of the FAS, Igor Artemyev, said that the final abolition of roaming is expected in 2018. If you invest in the specified period of time does not work, then the operators will be forced to pay large fines. “We want to finish this whole story this year (with roaming - welcome. Ed.), Otherwise we will accept the biggest sanctions that we have at our disposal,” said Artemyev. The amount of fines, according to the head of the department, can reach billions of rubles.



Igor Artemyev believes that roaming in the country should be canceled: “Neither one nor the other (neither intranet nor national roaming - ed.) Should not be in Russia. I think the roaming will be canceled next year. ”



After it became known about the opposition of the FAS with the Big Four operators, the subscribers of the companies began to complain more actively about the difference in tariffs when traveling around the country. “People keep writing to us all the time. There are a lot of complaints on this topic, ”said the head of the FAS.



It is worth noting that the proposal to cancel domestic roaming in the country appeared in 2012. He was voiced by the Ministry of Communications of Russia. In 2016, the abolition of national roaming was already discussed at the official level with telecom operators. Last year, the companies promised to develop their proposals for roaming-free tariffs. Regulators, in turn, promised to change the legislation so that roaming could be removed.



However, the promises of the operators remained promises . On August 13, the deadline by which telecommunications companies had to eliminate the margin for telecommunications services in roaming, equating the cost of "home" and "guest" tariffs, expired. But this was not done. Now operators are consulting with the FAS on the situation.



“The FAS Russia assessed the reasonableness of subscriber tariffs in national roaming, as well as the applicable inter-carrier roaming rates, according to the results of which it established that the base tariffs and tariffs with the use of options, as well as the inter-carrier roaming rates used significantly exceed the amount required for the production and sale of such goods and profits, "- said in a published statement of the FAS.



The next meeting to resolve the current issue with the participation of representatives of the FAS and telecom operators should be held in late September. Last month, FAS extended the deadline for fulfilling its roaming warning until December 15.