As a result of discussions during the joint meeting of the Regional Commonwealth in the field of Communications (RCC) and the Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC), which was held on September 30, 2024 in Yerevan, Republic of Armenia, the Vice-Minister of Digital Development, Innovation and Aerospace Industry of the Republic of Kazakhstan Askhat Orazbek took the initiative to hold the first field session in the Republic of Kazakhstan to discuss the formation of common conditions for the provision of mobile roaming services and reducing prices in the EAEU Member-States as part of the launch of the Action Plan (“Roadmap”) on cooperation between the EEC and the RCC for 2024-2027.

     On February 25, 2025, Astana hosted the first session for the EAEU Member-States (Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Russia, Kyrgyzstan) with the participation of representatives of the Communications Administration of the Republic of Kazakhstan, national fixed and mobile operators, the RCC Executive Committee and the EEC.

     From the EEC side, the session was attended by Maxim Ermolovich, Member of the Collegium (Minister) for Competition and Antimonopoly Regulation, and from the side of the RCC Director General Alexey Borodin and his deputy Maria Bolshakova.

     The parties discussed a number of existing difficulties in the issue of equalizing the conditions of mobile roaming service provision and reducing its prices in the EAEU member states, which Kazakhstani telecom operators face: this includes the need to take into account national approaches to the tariffication step, and financial costs associated with the systems of inter-operator relations, which determine the conditions and amount of mutual settlements between operators for the traffic provided by them (interconnect). In addition, the concept of a fair tariff and the harmonization of the relevant legal and regulatory framework were important elements on which the importance of finding common ground was noted.

     Based on the results of the discussions, the participants agreed that the tested format of the discussions is an extremely effective tool in approaching the possibility of forming common conditions for the provision of mobile roaming services and reducing prices for it in the EAEU Member-States and RCC Member-States as a whole.

     The following in the series of field sessions will be held in the Republic of Belarus.