ArmenTel: "Fair Roaming" in EEU is viable and economically favorable

ArmInfo. "Fair Roaming" in the member states of the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) is quite viable and economically favorable, David Sandukhchyan, Chief Legal Officer at ArmenTel CJSC (Beeline brand), has told ArmInfo.      

He says that the initiative of the Eurasian Economic Commission and the Federal Antimonopoly Service of Russia to reduce the tariffs of roaming among the EEU member states is viable and economically feasible. "The goal is to make the roaming tariffs in the EEU closer to the prime cost and more affordable," the expert says, noting that the European Union had also passed a similar path.

Sandukhchyan added that this will be economically efficient if all the market participants simultaneously agree to reduce the roaming tariffs, bringing them closer to the local tariffs.  "If the visited network, for instance, MTS, Megaphone and Tele 2 offer us low roaming tariffs and if the low tariff is valid for all the communication operators of the EEU member states, the reduction in roaming tariffs will also be economically beneficial", he says.

To recall, in Nov 2015, Igor Artemyev, Head of Federal Antimonopoly Service of Russia, said that the roaming tariffs in the EEU member states will be reduced seven-fold. "The tariffs of internet, voice data transmission, etc. will be reduced in the five member states of the EEU. We do not know when we will zero the roaming tariffs in the EEU, but we will do it by all means," Artemyev said. The working group that includes representatives of anti-monopoly bodies of the EEU countries has prepared plan for roaming tariff reduction.