Press News

Budapest, November 24, 2005

T-Mobile Hungary Co. Ltd. – as in all other cases – adhered to the law also when setting termination fees, therefore the company does not accept the resolution of the National Communications Authority (NHH) passed on November 23 and appeals to court.

NHH passed a resolution earlier in July concerning termination fees and the authority references that ruling when stipulating the current sanction. NHH assumes that T-Mobile set the wholesale fees by infringing with the July ruling. However, the referenced ruling about setting the average price was inaccurate in several aspects (e.g. setting the average fee), namely in lack of the detailed definition one needs to interpret the average as the mathematical average (see Hungarian Vocabulary on Interpretation of Words as well as the international regulatory practices – IRG). The resolution also failed to specify the method of calculation, which has also been accepted by the authority in its Information Report published afterwards. Problems related to the NHH resolution – being the basis of the dispute – are truly underlined by the fact that the three Hungarian mobile operators cast different interpretation on that and implemented the resolution in different ways. Considering these errors and inaccuracies T-Mobile appealed against this NHH resolution in August. Another fact to be remarked considering fees reviewed by NHH: of the three Hungarian mobile operators T-Mobile offers the lowest termination fees.

T-Mobile emphasises that the company set termination fees adhering to the stipulations of the resolution passed in the summer and did not generate any illegitimate extra revenue in the period passed since then, furthermore – in opposite of what is stated in the press release of NHH – did not cause any damage to customers, whatsoever. The fact that the authority made reviews and stipulated sanctions referring to a calculation method which was not outlined in its July resolution is difficult to appreciate. Moreover, the November 23 ruling of NHH fails to specify the concrete stipulations of the previous resolution, which the mobile company allegedly violated. In addition, NHH still did not specify accurately the calculation method of termination fees which according to its position would have been correct.

Based on the above T-Mobile will appeal to the court in order to have the resolution reviewed.