Magticom’s statement

On 15 June 2021, Magticom addressed an open letter to the Parliament of Georgia reflecting Magticom’s public statements regarding the Georgian National Communications Commission’s Annual Report for 2020, that was fraught with manifestly ill-founded and downright false information and the acts of Mr. Kakha Bekauri, the Chairman of Georgian National Communications Commission. 

The open letter has drawn wide interest from the general public. We’ve been contacted by members of Parliaments, parliamentary factions, political parties, media outlets and non-governmental organizations. However, considering the above, there is no certainty as to when the GNCC Reports for 2019 and 2020 will be heard in the Parliament of Georgia and having regard to the fact that so far we have not had the opportunity to put forward our detailed position at the hearing of the GNCC Reports, we are beginning, as promised, to present for public review the specific facts of the inefficient acts of the Georgian National Communications Commission, namely the responses by six of the internationally acclaimed G10 audit companies (namely, Deloitte, KPMG, BDO, RSM, Nexia and Grant Thornton) to the Communications Commission’s statement of 16 October 2020:  

www.magticom.ge/en/deloitte 
www.magticom.ge/en/kpmg 
www.magticom.ge/en/bdoandkalba
www.magticom.ge/en/rsm
www.magticom.ge/en/nexiata
www.magticom.ge/en/grantthornton

Misinterpreting the EU regulation practices for Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNO), the Communications Commission deliberately tries to mislead the public. Without obtaining a proper risk assessment, the Communications Commission made a hasty and ill-thought-out decision (#O-20-9/156, 31 December 2019) on mandatory access of Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNO). The Communications Commission made the decision without having conducted the necessary market analysis required by law. The Communications Commission has disregarded the cybersecurity risks identified and confirmed by International Telecommunications Union (ITU) and the consequences that may follow.  

Although Magticom had repeatedly informed the Communications Commission of the above risks and the such risks had been confirmed by six of the internationally acclaimed G10 audit companies in their respective analytical reports, the Communications Commission unreasonably ignored and disregarded them. In light of the above facts and analyses, questions do arise as to why the need for such harmful decisions on the part of the Communications Commission, especially during the time of far-reaching uncertainties throughout the whole world in general and in Georgia in particular in terms of both the current pandemics and its consequences and the ongoing devaluation of the Georgian national currency, especially in light of the fact that the mobile network operator’s average monthly income per mobile subscriber in Georgia is only GEL 8.6! This is the one of the lowest across Europe against the Georgian mobile network quality that is one of the best around the globe. Plus the effect that two of the three mobile network operators in Georgia incur net losses…    

In light of the above, one can’t help wondering what purpose that the above decision serves may be: to prevent us from developing in the future? To help others to enslave us? To destroy the national economy, security and all that has been produced so far? All the above provides a strong basis for a reasonable suspicion that someone’s vested interests may just as well be behind the above decision or/and that the Communications Commission itself may be a party behind MVNO despite the clear legal requirement that  the Communications Commission must act as a neutral arbiter in the sector.