Bulgarian Watchdog Lowers International Roaming Prices

Bulgaria's Commission for Communications Regulation (KRS) mandated Monday the three mobile operators to reduce their wholesale prices for incoming international cell phone calls.

Beginning April 1, 2011, the price will be BGN 0.13 a minute i.e. at the level of the national roaming calls.

The changes relate to the price international telecoms must pay to M-Tel, Globul and Vivacom for calls in their networks and would not be felt by the consumers.

The KRS economic analysis has shown the price for international call was too high and has decided to lower it over "market behavior of the operators which is in contradiction with the European regulations."

The change aims at preventing potential competition issues on the market until the second round of analyses and assessment of this market, KRS say.

Meanwhile, reception rooms for people who have complaints about the mobile operators will open doors Monday in the cities of Varna, Burgas, Plovdiv, Veliko Tarnovo and Vratsa. Such room is already in place in the capital Sofia.