Telecom Costa Rica: Cheaper Roaming is Not Anti-Competitive
A complaint from the state run telecommunications company in Costa Rica has been dismissed after it argued that its competitors Claro and Movistar were using monopolistic practices in their services for international voice and data roaming.
Friday, September 30, 2016
The Superintendency of Telecommunications (Sutel) and the Commission to Promote Competition (COPROCOM) decided not to recommend any sanction against alleged monopolistic practices by Movistar and Claro, annulling the suit filed in May 2015 by the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE).
Elfinancierocr.com explains that "...The Commission decided to resolve the petition made by the Sutel and the regulator, based on criterion, ruled on September 14: "Declaring that there is insufficient evidence to prove the verification of the assumptions set out in Article 54 of Law No 8642 specifically in connection with the existence of evidence that the companies Telefonica TC S.A. Costa Rica and Claro CR Telecomunicaciones S.A. conducted a margin squeeze regarding roaming ".
COPROCOM concluded that there was no evidence "to determine that Claro and Movistar have substantial power in the relevant markets, therefore it is not considered relevant to assess whether these companies are committing any alleged anti-competitive practices."
The telecommunications regulator has not found that the services provided by private operators for regional roaming at no additional cost are anti-competitive.
The complaint filed by the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad purported to show that its competitors in the mobile phone market Claro and Telefonica were implementing anti-competitive practices when setting prices for their services in the country.
After the opening up of the telecommunications market, the number of postpaid cellular lines are down from 1.6 million in 2010 to 1.1 million as at the end of 2012.
Prepaid connections currently represent 80% of the lines that exist in the country, while two years ago the figure was barely 49%, according to a study by the Telecommunications Superintendency (Sutel).
The Costa Rican regulator has prevented telephone companies Telefónica and ICE from agreeing on tariffs for end users within a contract for interconnecting their networks.
The company Claro filed a complaint to the Superindendency of Telecommunications (Sutel), which stated that the access and interconnection agreement signed between the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE) and Telefónica, contained clauses where both companies agreed not to charge prices below the cost of services provided, considering the interconnection charges as a cost common to both.
At the start of privatisation of the cellular market in Costa Rica, the Mexican company Claro is questioning agreements between the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE) and the Spanish run Telefónica.
The complaint filed by Claro to the Superintendency of Telecommunications (Sutel) indicates that in the access and interconnection agreement signed between the ICE and Telefonica, there are clauses where both companies are committed to not charging prices below the cost of services rendered, considering interconnection charges as a common expense to both parties.
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