After the AMC's recommendations, the mobile operators may be cut off from significant revenues, writes "Delo" on Thursday.

According to estimates by Oleksandr Parashchiy, an analyst at "Concord Capital", with the current number of subscribers (about 23 million), both operators collect up to 325 million hryvnias per month in connection fees, which amounts to up to 25% of their revenue.

At the same time, both companies deny that the connection fee is for them a tool for obtaining any super-profits.

Today's connection fee of 27 kopecks appeared at the two largest mobile operators in September 2003, when free incoming calls were introduced by an amendment to the Law "On Communications". At that time, the companies raised the connection fee (for outgoing calls) from 0.3 to 0.5 cents.

According to Serhiy Bulhakov, acting marketing director of "Kyivstar", "the main function of the connection fee is to prevent overloads of the network, communication channels and other technical means".

On Thursday, both operators will defend the legitimacy of the connection fee's existence at the AMC. "We are ready at this meeting to justify the legitimacy of the method of tariffing calls that currently exists at UMC," noted Yaryna Klyuchkovska, head of the company's external relations department.

To argue their position, the operators will rely on expert conclusions. In particular, it is known that assessments by the Association of Communications Operators "Telas" will be used.

"The connection fee is an objectively justified action – a targeted fee that compensates the operator's costs for maintaining the network," declares the head of this organization, Yuriy Solovyov.

In his opinion, the service of connecting and linking a subscriber is one of the main ones in mobile communications. Solovyov explains that one of the main tasks of the connection fee is to limit the large number of very short calls.

At the same time, according to experts, the flood of "unpaid" calls in the network today can be combated quite successfully.

In particular, Yuriy Bezborodov, chairman of the board of the satellite operator "Thuraya Ukraine", believes that if subscribers talk for free and a lot for 3 seconds, then the operators have the ability to limit this time to just 1 second. "Technically, these issues are now fully resolvable," the expert is convinced.

Mobile operators UMC and "Kyivstar" control 95% of the market.