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Vodafone/albtelecom
OPEN LETTER
February 3, 2004
Lord MacLaurin of Nebworth, DL
Chairman
Vodafone Group Plc
Vodafone House
Newbury RG142FN
England
RE: Vodafone Albania - Interconnection Agreements
Dear Lord MacLaurin:
I write to you with respect to the above-captioned matter as someone who was indirectly responsible for Vodafone's involvement in Albania. I make this claim due to the fact that in 1999, Albania was well on the road to awarding the GSM license now held by Vodafone to what, in my opinion, was a bogus telecom operator known as New World Telecom (NWT). Until my intervention in that affair, the U.S. Departments of State and Commerce were aggressively promoting NWT to the Albanian government. As a result of my efforts, the Albanian government reversed its position on NWT and opened what was intended to be a transparent bidding process that ultimately saw a GSM license for Albania awarded to Vodafone. Attached herewith is a copy of Albania For Sale, an article I wrote that discusses the NWT episode in more detail.
It has come to my attention that a recent review of the interconnection agreements among telecom operators in Albania, conducted by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), reveals what appears to be an extremely unfair interconnection agreement between Vodafone Albania and Albtelecom, the state owned fixed line operator. Key interconnection terms contained in the ITU review include the following:
1) Tariffs Setting: Tariffs for calls from Albtelecom to Vodafone are mutually agreed upon by the parties whereas tariffs for calls from Vodafone to Albtelecom are set unilaterally by Vodafone.
2) National Calls: For calls from Albtelecom to Vodafone, Vodafone receives 88% of the billed amount but not less than 40 Albanian Lek (approx. 36 US cents) per minute, payable to Vodafone even before Albtelecom has collected the amount from its customers. The traffic in the first half of 2003 was 10.8 million minutes. For calls from Vodafone to Albtelecom, Vodafone pays 8% of the applicable tariff to Albtelecom but a minimum of only 3 Lek (approx. 3 US cents) per minute. The traffic in the first half of 2003 was 4.3 million minutes.
3) International Calls: For termination of international calls through Albtelecom to Vodafone, the effective revenue sharing is Vodafone 84% and Albtelecom 16%. The traffic in the first half of 2003 was 63.8 million minutes. For outgoing international calls made from Vodafone through Albtelecom, less than 5% of the fee charged to the Vodafone customer is shared with Albtelecom. The traffic in the first half of 2003 was 5.9 million minutes.
4) National Transit Traffic: There is no compensation to Albtelecom for transiting traffic between Vodafone and the other mobile operator Albanian Mobile Communications (AMC). In first half of 2003 the traffic transited via Albtelecom from Vodafone to AMC was 23.1 million minutes and from AMC to Vodafone 22.6 million minutes. It is my understanding that for one telecom to pay another a transit fee is a common practice throughout the world and the average fee is approximately 5 cents per minute; however, for a telecom to escape the payment of a transit fee for the use of another telecom's transit services is a highly uncommon practice.
5) Duration: The interconnection agreement is valid for a fixed period of four years, four times longer than the standard worldwide industry practice of a one year contract.
It is my understanding that the above referenced ITU report was forwarded to the relevant Albanian government authorities in early December 2003. Yet, upon making several inquiries in Albania, there does not appear to be any public knowledge of this report, despite the fact that Albtelecom is an asset that operates for the benefit of the people of Albania. Based on my contact with a Member of Albaniaās Parliament, it does not appear the report was submitted to Parliament, and it seems that no action has been taken to investigate the claims made in the ITU report by either the Albanian government or Vodafone.
You should be aware that there has been considerable speculation among those who are familiar with the ITU report and the telecom industry in Albania, that senior level Albanian government officials were engaged in a conspiracy to structure the interconnection fees to unfairly reward Vodafone Albania to the detriment of Albtelecom. The reason suspected for this collusion is that Albanian government officials, with their control of Albtelecom, are in the position to extract payments for their cooperation in rewarding Vodafone Albania with an undeserved profit windfall as a result of such an alleged scheme.
Although I do not have information to corroborate the allegation of conspiracy among Albania's telecom companies that I can share with you at this time, you should be aware of the following circumstances:
1. Albanian government officials have been repeated targets of allegations of corrupt practices by European Union officials and the media.
2. There are several relationships that may be legitimate but on the surface appear suspicious. For instance, Sokol Nano, the son of Fatos Nano, Albania's Prime Minister, was appointed director of marketing for Vodafone Albania, and I have been informed that he had no prior experience in the telecom sector. It is also my understanding that Dhimitraq Rafti, known to be one of Fatos Nano's closest associates, headed Albtelecom at the time the interconnection agreement with Vodafone Albania was negotiated, and he currently serves as Deputy Minister of Telecommunications.
3. On January 19, 2004, I forwarded a memorandum to the U.S. Department of Justice alleging that Fatos Nano maintains an illegal bank account at Credit Suisse and, if the account exists, funds in that account may have been derived from corrupt practices in Albania.
4. In a landmark case with possible ramifications for Albtelecom and Vodafone Albania, the U.S. Department of Justice recently initiated an investigation of Philippine telecom operators to determine if there was collusion in the setting of connection fees, and in particular, those fees related to international calls to and from the United States.
5. Ilir Meta, Albania's former prime minister, has made public claims that there may have been improprieties with respect to the bidding procedure that resulted in awarding a GSM license to Vodafone.
Based on my understanding of the ITU report, the unfair connection terms enumerated herein could have such a deleterious effect on Albtelecom that the result could be a total collapse of this state owned enterprise which, by definition, is the property of the people of Albania. Obviously, this could have grave consequences for Albania's telecommunication sector and the country's entire economy. More foreboding, if it is confirmed that these seemingly biased interconnection agreements are the result of corrupt practices, this could lead to political chaos that could severely undermine Albania's political stability. You should be aware that in 1997, as a result of the collapse of pyramid schemes that had proliferated in Albania, there was massive civil unrest throughout the country.
I am respectfully requesting that you immediately call for an investigation of this matter by Vodafone Group to include, but not necessarily limited to, the following:
1. A review of the findings of the ITU report by an independent outside auditor, in consultation with the ITU, with the results to be submitted to your board, the Albanian government and the Albanian public.
2. If the audit of Vodafone Albania's operations confirms the ITU claims of unfair interconnection agreements, all accounts of Vodafone Group, Vodafone Albania and Vodafone Greece should be examined to determine if there were any illegal transfers of funds, directly or indirectly, for the benefit of Albanian government officials. If any improprieties are discovered, this information should be turned over to the appropriate regulatory agencies in the United Kingdom, the United States, the European Union and Albania.
3. If the findings prove the existence of unfair interconnection agreements and/or improprieties, Vodafone Group should take immediate action to implement an equitable realignment of the interconnection fee sharing agreement between Vodafone Albania and Albtelecom, and Vodafone should reimburse Albtelecom for those fees that were unfairly allocated in the past.
Your response with respect to Vodafone's plan of action for a resolution of this matter will be greatly appreciated, and I will be happy to provide any assistance possible in this regard.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
Gary Q. Kokalari
cc: John Ashcroft, Attorney General, U.S. Department of Justice
William Donaldson, Chairman, Securities and Exchange Commission
European Union Officials: Pat Cox, Doris Pack, Christopher Patten
Callum McCarthy, Chairman, Financial Services Authority
Arun Sarin, CEO, Vodafone Group PLC
James Wolfensohn, Chairman, World Bank
leter qe nuk eshte botuar nga mediat per shkak te frikes se humbjes se financimeve nga vodafoni, qe eshte reklamuesi me i madh ne Shqiperi.
__________________
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