CyTA complains of ripoff
NICOSIA (Reuters) – Cyprus telecoms monopoly CyTA has complained to the telecoms regulator that it is suffering substantial losses as companies reroute mobile calls from abroad onto their own networks. In such rerouting, mobile phone calls are sent to another mobile operator abroad which has a cooperation agreement with a Cypriot Internet firm. «They are bypassing our international network through the Internet… Right now, as the legislation stands, this is not legal,» a company source said. CyTA, which is trying to expand abroad to offset the impact of deregulation at home, is losing «a lot of money» from this practice, the source added. «It’s in the hundreds of thousands of pounds… it has been going on for some time,» the source said. Panayiotis Kakkouras, senior officer at the regulator’s office, said authorities were looking into CyTA’s complaint. He said the regulator would issue a decree by the end of this month laying out the legal framework within which the rerouting operators could obtain licenses. «Right now we are in a transition phase,» he said.
