OREANDA-NEWS. Ukrtelecom JSC and TriMob LLC officially declare that the lawsuit by the General Prosecutor of Ukraine to the National Commission for the State Regulation of Communications and Informatization (NCCIR) to revoke the license for radio frequencies issued by TriMob LLC has no legality and is filed with procedural violations, including violation of terms of bringing it before the court.

The license was obtained by TriMob LLC in 2011 as a result of reallocation of radio frequencies previously allocated to Ukrtelecom JSC in strict accordance with the procedure provided for in Article 45 of the Law of Ukraine On Telecommunications and Article 34 of the Law of Ukraine On the Radio Frequency Resource of Ukraine.

NCCIR, as a body responsible for state supervision in the field of radio frequencies in Ukraine, has been repeatedly carrying out inspections of both operators (the last inspection taking place in October 2014) and did not establish any violations of the law regarding the issuance and use of this license.

Arguments of the General Prosecutor of Ukraine regarding the fact that renewal of the disputed license resulted in a significant revenue loss for state budget (taking into account the Decree of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine dated 05.09.2014 No. 514 and Decision of NCCIR dated 29.09.2009 No. 1684) are unfounded. Performance of these regulations is only applied for a specified list of radio frequencies different than those issued by TriMob LLC. For its part, TriMob LLC has fully paid fees provided by law for the license issuance and use of radio frequencies, which in the period from November 2011 to October 2014 was over 312 million hryvnias. The statutory procedure for reallocation of radio frequencies does not involve re-tender or tender regarding such radio frequencies.

Reissue of licenses for radio frequencies on the basis of a joint statement of companies on reallocation of radio frequencies between them is a known and common practice in the telecommunications market of Ukraine which was used by many large operators (recent precedents taking place in 2014). The state represented by the General Prosecutor of Ukraine filed claims only to Ukrtelecom JSC and TriMob LLC.

We believe that, as the General Prosecutor of Ukraine has not provided any evidence of law violations by the operators, and it justifies the claim only by alleged violations by NCCIR, the attempt to judicially cancel the previously issued license by the regulator is a disproportionate interference with the rights of TriMob LLC to conduct business.