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Russia launches antimonopoly case versus MTS over mobile tariff rises

Russia's competitors regulator opened an antimonopoly case against leading mobile operator MTS on Wednesday for pushing rates up, rises MTS stated were justified due to higher expenses connected with preserving the quality of its services.

Russia's telecoms industry has had to handle the fallout from Western sanctions over Russia's 2022 intrusion of Ukraine, losing access to some foreign equipment and with foreign vendors, consisting of Nokia and Ericsson, taking out of the marketplace.

Russia's Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) has formerly locked horns with network operators over cost boosts, with the FAS releasing fines sometimes.

In April and March 2024, MTS increased the expense of mobile interactions services for more than 30 million customers by an average of 8%, the FAS said.

Based upon the results of its analysis, the FAS determined that this increase was not validated by the growth in the operator's expenses and was not economically warranted.

MTS disagreed.

The development ... is brought on by an increase in expenses for spectrum payments, equipment upkeep and infrastructure development, and the requirement to invest in widening and modernising the network to keep the quality of service the population is accustomed to, the operator stated.

Senior telecoms executives and other market sources informed in 2022 that the departure of foreign suppliers and minimized equipment supplies could cripple Russia's mobile networks over the long term.