Telephone Rate Hike Inevitable

The government will not change the tariffs for the basic communication services until the end of this year, Chairman of the State Committee for Communications Oleh Shevchuk told Ukrayinski Novyny. On the other hand, he thinks that a rate in hike is inevitable. “Our rates are among the world’s lowest,” he stressed.

According to Shevchuk, the committee is looking to set up work groups embracing communication market operators in order to develop proposals to change phone rates.

Shevchuk said the committee intends to stop subsidizing the development of some types of communication services at the cost of others, specifically, to eliminate the difference in payment for telephone calls by legal and natural persons, and to stop the subsidization of communication services in rural areas at the expense of profits on such services in major cities. The last rate increase was on November 1, 1998.

For the population, the monthly charge for the telephone service is seven hryvnias without being charged on a per minute basis or 4.90 per minute. One minute of local calls costs one kopiyka.