TP backs away from international calls price hike

The Office for Competition and Consumer Protection (UOKiK) ruled yesterday that TP should suspend the price increase and also said that anti-monopoly proceedings had been initiated. In mid-September TP increased the tariff for a minute-long connection through a 0-708-1 prefix, which is used by its competition to offer cheaper international calls, from zł.0.35 to zł.0.71. It blamed the price hike on growing costs. The increase met with fierce protests from other telecoms and Internet portals that use the prefix to offer international calls amounting to 5-10% of the market. The UOKiK concluded that the price increase was aimed at eliminating the competition. The proceedings should be finished within five or six months and it seems that TP will manage to avoid sanctions. "We will certainly take into account the fact that the illegal practice was applied but it ceased to exist," declared Elżbieta Witkowska-Grochalska from UOKiK. TP's lawyers are considering an appeal. "The competition is trying to force us to provide the services below cost," complained TP spokesperson Barbara Górska. (Parkiet, p. 5) E.B.