It is planned to cancel mobile roaming in the EEC countries by the end of 2024

The Eurasian Economic Commission plans to eliminate all obstacles to the abolition of mobile roaming in the EAEU countries by the end of 2024. We believe that the approximation of roaming tariffs to home tariffs across the entire Eurasian Economic Union will lead to a multiple increase of 5-10 times, an increase in voice and Internet traffic. Therefore, it is unrealistic and wrong to talk about a decrease in revenue. Technical problems remain, for the solution of which the commission approved a plan until January 1, 2025," Kazinform quotes Alexey Sushkevich, Director of the Department of Antimonopoly Regulation of the EEC. As an example, he cited the cancellation of increased roaming charges between Russia and Belarus in April 2023. We have studied this bilateral experience, and this experience can be scaled," Sushkevich explained. According to him, statistics show that after the cancellation of roaming, the cost of international tariffs decreased to the level of domestic, that is, 5-10 times. However, there was a compensation of mobile operators' revenue due to the increased number of conversations and an increase in Internet traffic. The main task is to make sure that the borders between states that are missing for economic interaction are not restored by private efforts on the part of the largest market players who may be interested in segmentation of the common market and, in fact, its disintegration," the head of the EEC Department added. In turn, member of the EEC Competition and Antimonopoly Regulation Board Bakhyt Sultanov said that the participants of the II Eurasian Economic Forum paid great attention to the issues of antimonopoly regulation on the example of digital markets. Within the framework of the EAEU treaty, the key focus is to preserve the conditions of competition in our markets, especially in cross-border markets. The greater the interpenetration of our economies, the faster supranational regulation and interaction of the EEC with the national antimonopoly authority should develop," Sultanov said. The II Eurasian Economic Forum was held in Moscow on May 24-25. The event is timed to coincide with the meeting of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council with the participation of the leaders of the EAEU member states. The agenda included issues of ensuring energy and food security, technological and financial independence, accelerating digital transformation, removing regulatory and trade barriers, developing transport infrastructure and others. The President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev spoke at the meeting of the Council. According to him, the key area of work of the governments and the Eurasian Economic Commission should be the formation of a single, truly barrier-free market and ensuring unhindered transit of goods to third countries. Following the meeting of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council, a number of documents were signed. Earlier, Kazakh operators opposed the abolition of roaming in the EAEU countries. They explained their position by the fact that the introduction of a fair roaming tariff will affect the reduction of their income.