TARIFFS

The Telecommunications Services (General) Regulations also address the subject of price controls on telecommunications services. These Regulations lay down that an operator providing fixed telephony services having a dominant market position (DMP) must use cost-oriented tariffs which it is obliged to publish, and may not without the consent of the MCA, bundle a number of services into a single tariff without also offering each of the constituent services under separate tariffs. This Regulation also empowers the MCA to define and impose price cap formulae and other regulation schemes on operators for services provided in markets which in its opinion lack effective competition. The MCA may choose not to apply such controls over tariffs of operators that do not have a DMP or in respect of services that are provided in market segments which it considers are subject to effective competition.

The Telecommunications (Regulation) Act states that tariffs in respect of telecommunications services in markets or market segments which are in the opinion of the MCA subject to effective competition, shall be established by the operation of the market. The Act provides that in markets or market segments which in the opinion of the MCA lack effective competition, tariffs shall be subject to proportionate controls and regulations which may also grant power to the MCA to issue proportionate and non-discriminatory directives as it may deem appropriate. Where no regulations have been issued to regulate such markets, tariffs shall be regulated in accordance with rate mechanisms or, in their absence, by applying for the MCA's approval on the instance of introducing new tariffs or making changes thereto.