/IRBIS, July 9, 2010/ - LLP Kar-Tel (trademark Beeline) does not accept the conclusion of the Agency of the Republic of Kazakhstan on Protection of Competition on June 3, 2010, stated in the statement issued today's press service LLP Kar-Tel.

As previously reported, the Agency of the Republic of Kazakhstan on Protection of Competition on July 3 completed the investigation into the largest cellular operators in the Republic of Kazakhstan "GSM Kazakhstan JSC" Kazakhtelecom, LLP Kar-Tel, Inc. "Mobile Telecom-Service" on grounds of abuse of data communication operators their dominant position on the ground of establishing thresholds for use international roaming services. In this investigation the Board decided to institute against LLP Kar-Tel "LLP" GSM Kazakhstan JSC "Kazakhtelecom, LLP Mobile Telecom-Service" cases of administrative Offences under Part 3 of Art. 147 of the Administrative Code of Kazakhstan. In the case of a positive decision of the court according to the administrative cases total fines of over KZT28 billion.

As indicated, for its part LLP Kar-Tel believes that the establishment of a minimum value of money in the customer's account, necessary for connecting roaming services ("threshold"), does not contradict the requirements of the legislation of the Republic of Kazakhstan, stated in the message.

The company notes that this approach is consistent with common international practice for the provision of roaming services and is intended to protect the legitimate interests of both operators and, indirectly, their roaming partners and customers who migrate to foreign countries and intending to use the roaming services.

"Application of the threshold value does not contradict the requirements of current legislation of the Republic of Kazakhstan and was due solely to technological and commercial characteristics of providing roaming services. As we've reported previously, we are ready to continue cooperating with the state authorities under existing law to obtain an objective picture of the results of the investigation, - are reported comments by Mr. Anatoly Popov, General Director of LLC "Kar-Tel"

Roaming services may be provided to subscribers in two modes: "online" and "offline." In the presence of technological capabilities charging of roaming services in the online mobile operators do not establish a threshold value for its subscribers in the visited network.

Where the technical possibilities of foreign telecom operators do not allow for roaming in online, subscribers can use the services of another operator, which is able to provide services "online" roaming. However, in countries where the "online" operators do not generally roaming services can be provided only in offline mode.

Technological feature providing roaming services in the offline mode is that the exchange of data on services provided between the home network operator and foreign roaming Partner of processed not in real time, and often with considerable delay, resulting in subscriber goes to minus . The probability of this occurring is reduced due to the establishment of a threshold, which could accommodate a certain amount of money on the subscriber's account is sufficient for providing roaming services.

It is noted that the majority of subscribers Beeline, both prepaid and postpaid payment systems that use the services of "online" - roaming. Thus, in the first half of 2010 roaming services in the online used 87.95% of subscribers.

Companies Kar-Tel (Beeline brand in Kazakhstan) and SA-Telcom (Golden Telecom brand in Kazakhstan) are a group of companies" VympelKom LTD.

[2010-07-09]