'We keep getting quite a few complaints from people who are unhappy with the new rules of paying one’s telephone bills that were introduced on February 1, 2007,’ Chairman of Yekaterinburg Consumer Rights Committee Andrey Artemiev said to UrBC.

‘There are generally two kinds of complaints: firstly, those that come from the subscribers who never actually quite understood every single thing about the new additional agreement but signed it all the same and are naturally dissatisfied with the terms now. There is little we can do for these customers at this point since they have already agreed to get these particular services. Secondly, there are applications from people who chose not to accept any of the options (that is, one of the three tariffs) they had been offered. We are trying to help them through filing claims to be placed with the court, and I believe we are to get the first results this June,’ Mr. Artemiev noted.

'There really are a lot of incongruities about the new tariff schemes; I personally think they violate the antimonopoly law, yet it was agreed upon by the Federal Tariff Service. This would be classed as restrictive trade practice in some countries,’ Mr. Artemiev said.