Ministry Ends Free Mobile Call Promotions

09 Dec 2009 2105 | Cambodia Travel News

Following a months-long feud between the mobile telephone companies MobiTel and Beeline, who traded accusations over price-dumping and blocking of calls, the Ministry of Post and Telecommunications plans to unveil a new directive today, setting minimum prices and putting an end to free-call promotions.

Minister So Khun declined yesterday to give details on the directive signed Friday, which follows a letter from Prime Minister Hun Sen warning mobile phone firms they could lose their operating licenses if they continue to block calls between their networks and continue to give below cost calls to their customers.

In September, Beeline accused MobiTel of blocking calls from its network to MobiTel's customers. MobiTel in turn accused Beeline of price dumping by charging below $0.06 for between-network calls.

So Khun said that without the directive "violators will exploit the other companies with their prices."

'It's to make lair competition and to have rules," he continued.

He declined to supply a copy of the directive yesterday or to give details on how interconnectivity problems will be resolved by the new rules.

Simon Perkins, CEO of Hello network, said his company had received a copy of the directive and was stil determining its exact meaning. But he said he understood the minimum price for between-network calls to be $0.07 and pricing on irmetwork calls to be $0,055, though he was waiting for clarification.

"This is a measure that MPTC has had to do because there are no competition laws," he said. Hello, unlike several other competitors, doesn't offer free call promotions. He said that Hello could benefit from the directive as some companies raise their prices but that this will depend on the enforcement of the law.

Nhem Socheata, a media specialist for Beeline, said her company had no comment because they had not seen any official documents. Mark Hanna, Chief Financial Oflicer of MobiTel, could not be reached for comment.

Sourced = The Cambodia Daily