OREANDA-NEWS. October 28, 2009. The Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS Russia) found that "Centre Telecom" OJSC violated Part 1 Article 10 of the Federal Law "On Protection of Competition" by abusing its dominant position on the communication market, reported the press-centre of FAS Russia.

The case was initiated upon a petition of "STsS Sovintel" Ltd., which is a provider of local, zonal and long-distance / international telephone communication.

Investigating the case, FAS Russia established that "Centre Telecom" OJSC refused to make changes to the connection contract with "STsS Sovintel" Ltd. on removing traffic restrictions, which forced "STsS Sovintel" Ltd. to pay a considerably higher price for the traffic services of "Centre Telecom" OJSC and prevented "STsS Sovintel" Ltd. from independently providing services to other operators for connection to a public communication network.

The FAS Russia's Commission concluded that "Centre Telecom" OJSC infringed the interests of "STsS Sovintel" Ltd. as a provider of zonal and long-distance / international telephone communication, and limited the right of a connected operator, providing communication services to the end-users, to rationally use its own communication infrastructure. "It results in restricting competition on the connection market and traffic transmission and can lead to restricting competition on the market of local and zonal telephone communication ", said Anatoly Golomolzin, Deputy Head of FAS Russia.

Traffic routing requested by "Centre Telecom" OJSC was in line with the requirements set by the normative legal acts on communication; the same traffic routing is used with other communications providers.

Having investigated the case, FAS Russia issued a determination to "Centre Telecom" OJSC aimed at stopping the violation and preventing such restrictions.