OREANDA-NEWS. October 22, 2009. The Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS Russia) found that "Yuzhnaya Telecommunikatsionnaya Komapnia [South Communication Company]" OJSC (YuTC OJSC) Part 1 Article 1o of the Federal Law "On Protection of Competition" (abusing dominant position) in terms of imposing conditions irrelevant to the contract subject, and issued a determination to the company to stop the violations, reported the press-centre of FAS Russia.

The case was initiated upon petitions of "Ekvant" Ltd. and "Vympelcom" OJSC. "YuTC" OJSC imposed telecommunication contracts upon "Ekvant" Ltd. and "Vympelcom" OJSCfor organizing and servicing unswitched through connections to connect equipment of the third party operators. "YuTC" OJSC does not provide such services.

FAS Russia established that placing connecting lines of the third party operators under the contracts for connecting and interaction between telecommunication networks at technological sites of "YuTC" OJSC are property relations.

Providing such services can be settled under the existing contract for leasing premises of "YuTC" OJSC for placing the operator's equipment, as well as under a separate contract for the services for providing (technological sites) for connecting lines.

"Communication markets have operators providing services of long-distance and local communication, mobile communications, connections services and traffic transfer. Enabling interaction between various operators is an essential condition for developing markets on the basis of competition, says Anatoly Golomolzin, Deputy Head of FAS Russia. - Competition is important for consumers as prices go down and the quality of services improves. For instance, earlier "Dalsvyaz" OJSC decreased its rates by more than twofold for the services of connecting carrier's networks. "Sibir'telecom" OJSC cut the prices for providing a subscriber line for joint use with providers of Internet-services by more than ten times. Attempts of the dominant companies to prevent inter-carrier cooperation are suppressed by the antimonopoly bodies".

"YuTC" OJSC will be issued a determination to eliminate the violation.

Anatoly Golomolzin also pointed out that "FAS Russia considers significant number of cases related to antimonopoly violations, particularly to inter-carrier settlements. Adopting the Rules for non-discriminatory access to telecommunications services and infrastructure will enable preventing such anticompetitive practices".