Astelit, the mobile communications operator that owns the life:) brand, on January 28 stopped connecting international calls of clients of the Golden Telecom Company to its network within the interconnect service.
The interconnect service envisaged an opportunity for clients of Golden Telecom to make calls to clients of life): from abroad.
According to Nadia Lubnina, the head of the foreign relations of Astelit, the service has been suspended as the companies failed to arrive at an agreement on financial side of the matter.
Astelit believes the suspension will not cause problems to clients of both operators, since there are other ways of making calls from abroad (like transit traffic through third operators).
The situation does not affect the cooperation between the two operators at the national level. Astelit will not stop providing this service to Golden Telecom within Ukraine.
Lubnina said the negotiations with the largest telecommunication company Ukrtelecom on the rates of the interconnect service are at the final stage. An agreement between the two companies will be signed in the very near future, according to her.
The Golden Telecom brand is owned by the Ukrainian Radiosystems company, which provides mobile and fixed-line communications services.
The press service of Ukrainian Radiosystems confirmed that the Astelit company has begun blocking Golden Telecom’s international traffic.
A representative of the press service also said that the operator has informed the National Communications Regulation Commission about the situation and is waiting for the commission to take action to restore its network.
As Ukrainian News earlier reported, the National Commission for Regulating Communications has raised the recommended tariffs of connection to the networks of mobile communications operators from 25 kopecks to 35-40 kopecks.
In May 2009, the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine (AMCU) declared eight operators (including Astelit and Golden Telecom) monopolies on the market of interconnect. In June, however, the AMCU suspended its decision.
