Kyiv-based Astelit Ltd. (the life:) trademark) has won in Kyiv Economic Court counter-claims against private JSC Kyivstar and MTS Ukraine on setting interconnection fees, Astelit's press service has reported.
According to the report, in spring 2011 the two large operators filed claims against Astelit on settling disputes linked to the signing of agreements on interconnection. Astelit filed a counter-claim.
On May 27 and May 31 the court issued rulings ordering the signing of agreements on interconnection using asymmetric interconnection fees, satisfying Astelit’s claims.
The press service said that the disputes between the operators are linked to the ambiguous interpretation of a decision of the National Communications Regulatory Commission of Ukraine (NCRC) on the setting of interconnection fees (No. 600 of December 23, 2010) and to the fact that the commission has not started regulating the interconnection market and determining which operators are deemed to have Significant Market Power.
As reported, operators have been protecting their interconnection positions in courts for several years. Before the decision of the NCRC to set single interconnection fees to replace differentiated ones, as a rule sides failed to agree on the fees.
In early December 2010 the Ukrainian parliament amended the Law on Telecommunications which considerably extends the regulatory authority of the National Communications Regulatory Commission. The amendments define an operator as having considerable interconnection market predominance if its share of gross revenues from services of interconnection with fixed or mobile communications services over the past 12 months is more than 25% of all operators’ total revenues from interconnection services.
The commission by July 2011 plans to draw up a procedure for defining operators with Significant Market Power and could revise the interconnection fees in Q4, 2011.
