Macedonia’s Transport Minister Mile Janakeski is quoted as saying the government is looking to open up the domestic telecoms market to mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs). In a statement posted on the Ministry website Janakeski said: ‘To enable this service, the interconnection fees charged by the mobile operators were lowered earlier this month.’
According to TeleGeography’s GlobalComms Database, in August this year national regulator the Electronic Communications Agency (AEC) announced it was reducing the cost of retail prices of mobile telephony services, effective from September 2010, in the wake of a May decision to cut the wholesale prices that domestic cellcos pay for the use of each other’s networks. In addition, the AEC ushered in another condition for domestic cellcos, under which they will have to rent out their infrastructure under previously determined prices, in a move designed to make the market more attractive to a fourth mobile operator, or MVNO – something the government has been pursuing for more than 18 months.