Humans demands that the Antimonopoly Committee investigate Uzbektelecom's actions

On May 8, 2025, the virtual mobile operator Humans sent an official application to the Committee for Competition Development and Consumer Protection with a request to initiate an antitrust case against the state telecommunications operator Uzbektelecom. The company accuses the operator of setting monopolistically high prices for infrastructure rental and creating discriminatory conditions for providing services.

As explained in the appeal, Humans operates in the market as a virtual operator (MVNO), without having its own data transmission infrastructure. All the company's activities are based on contractual relations with Uzbektelecom, concluded on May 22, 2020. However, according to Humans, starting from 2021, the tariff for transmitting Internet traffic via the Gn interface remains unchanged, despite a significant decrease in the market value of Internet services.

The statement emphasizes that from 2020 to 2023, the average cost of Internet in international markets decreased by more than four times — from $1.34 to $0.3 per 1 GB. Also, the cost of services of the International Packet Switching Center and the cost of data transmission in 4G have significantly decreased due to the introduction of LTE. However, Uzbektelecom's basic tariffs were not revised, which, according to Humans, violates the norms of the antimonopoly legislation.

The company notes that in the conditions of a constant tariff policy, it is forced to keep retail prices at a competitive level. This has led to the fact that the share of infrastructure rental costs in the total cost of services has reached 58%, which, according to Humans, makes the business model unprofitable and hinders free competition.

Additionally, Humans pointed out the actions of Uzbektelecom in connection with the resulting debt. According to the letters sent by the company, from March 1, 2025, the amount of bandwidth on the Gi interface was limited to 40 Gbit/s, and from March 31-to 30 Gbit/s. At the same time, from June 1, it is planned to completely stop providing services in the absence of payment. Humans also reported that they received notifications about the suspension of technical support and the possible transfer of the case to court.

The appeal of Humans claims that such measures violate the law "On Telecommunications", as they create unequal conditions for access to telecommunications infrastructure. The company considers Uzbektelecom's actions as an abuse of its dominant position and an attempt to limit competition in the market.

The statement asks the Antimonopoly Agency to analyze the structure of the infrastructure rental market, consider the compliance of tariffs with real economic indicators and take measures to curb abuse. Among the requirements of Humans are the restoration of full data transfer speed, the return of overpaid funds or their offset in future payments, as well as holding Uzbektelecom accountable for creating discriminatory conditions.

The Committee for Competition Development and Consumer Protection confirmed the receipt of the request to Spot editors and said that the application is under study. The agency did not provide any additional comments until the review was completed.

Earlier, a letter from Uzbektelecom dated March 27, 2024 was distributed on social networks, which contains a demand for repayment of debt in the amount of 532 billion soums, of which more than 361 billion are the principal amount of the debt, and over 170 billion are accrued penalties. Spot does not have confirmation of the authenticity of the specified document.