Slovenia's largest mobile operators, Mobitel and Simobil, have signed a new agreement on asymmetrical prices of inter-network calls which puts Simobil, the smaller of the two, in a more favourable market position.
The asymmetrical model, which the two first signed last year, means that for calls originating in its network and terminating in Simobil's (the off-net calls), Mobitel pays Simobil more than Simobil does for calls terminating in Mobitel's network.
The contract, signed on Friday, will be valid for 2005. The business daily Finance writes on Monday that the agreement will add about one billion tolars (EUR 4.2m) to Simobil's bottom line.
Such agreements are an instrument intended to boost competition; Mobitel is by far larger than its rival, as it has about 1.5 million customers as opposed to less than 400,000 for Simobil.
The two operators also offered the asymmetrical model to the third operator, Vega, but Vega declined. "More decisive steps are needed, in the direction of the regulation of retail prices," Vega spokesman Denis Ostir said.
Vega has recently announced a EUR 174m lawsuit against the government, alleging that the state and its regulators failed to ensure equal competition conditions for all operators.
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