You're reading: MTS Ukraine, Kyivstar fail to agree on interconnection fees

Mobile communications operators MTS Ukraine and Kyivstar have failed to sign an agreement on interconnection fees for 2012, representatives of the operators have told Interfax-Ukraine.

Kyivstar believes that the signing of the agreement is being delayed due to old conflicts between MTS Ukraine and Beeline (Ukrainian Radio Systems and Golden Telecom).

"There is no agreement between the sides, and Kyivstar is ready to sign it today, although MTS is pegging its signing to its old conflicts with Beeline," the director of the regulatory and legal provision department at Kyivstar, Andriy Osadchuk, said, commenting on the situation.

MTS Ukraine say that this is not true, as the term of the bilateral contract was ceased under an initiative of Kyivstar on January 1, 2012 without any pegging to any other agreements.

"MTS was ready to prolong the agreement on the same conditions as they were earlier, using interconnection fees set by the NCCR [National Commission for Communications Regulation]," MTS said. The real reason of the refusal to sign the contract is the unwillingness of the opponent to pay under the agreement.

"Actually, the absence of the agreement gives them a chance not to pay accounts for services rendered, which is not normal for public companies, which should operate under standards approved on international markets," MTS said.

The operator also said that it was illogical to accuse it of delaying the process, as it is unprofitable for the operator. The company said that at present, the balance of inter operator connection is in favor of MTS Ukraine.

"The difference in payments for traffic volumes today is calculated in millions of hryvnias per month," the operator said.

The company added that if in the neat term the situation does not change, the operator will appeal to the regulator to settle the dispute and if it is not settled, to the courts.

As Interfax-Ukraine learned, both companies have contracts with the third mobile operator – Astelit (the life:) trademark, Kyiv).