Russian telecommunications regulator Roskomnadzor announced last Friday changes in the conditions of four tenders to allocate GSM frequencies, to be held in April.
Roskomnadzor’s decision follows a four-year legal dispute over the frequencies since their initial allocation under tenders held in 2007. Specifically, VimpelCom, a leading mobile operator, whose application for frequencies in Far-East regions have been rejected, claimed that anti-monopoly legislation was violated.
Last December, the State Radio Frequency Commission (SRFC) decided to hold new tenders for allocation of frequencies in four federal districts.
A range of Russian operators, including both the leading ones and subsidiaries of Tele2 Russia, are applying for these frequencies.
With the applications for three of the four tenders already having been submitted, Roskomnadzor said it made its late decision in order to avoid the creation of unequal conditions among applicants, thereby curtailing the possibility of further legal disputes.
In particular, the changes relate to the GSM experience of the applying operators, as well as their pre-existing 3G activities in the same territories, while at the same time no longer taking into account their financial situations.
Representatives of MTS, Megafon and VimpelCom, the “Big Three” operators, interviewed by RIA Novosti, approved of the decision. But representatives of Tele2 Russia and Telecomdaily regretted the fact that the changes took place after applications were submitted. Telecomdaily’s general manager Denis Kuskov says that the changes in tender conditions would benefit the “Big Three” in certain regions, and could in themselves create grounds for further legal action.
Should such legal action be undertaken, the allocation of the corresponding GSM frequencies would be delayed once again.
Source: RIA Novosti
