Travel ban over phone bills

Subscribers to Moscow's fixed-line telephone operator MGTS will face bans on overseas travel if they run up unpaid bills, Kommersant reported Wednesday.

The first ban for an unidentified MGTS user, who has a debt of 93,000 rubles ($3,025), was approved by court marshals Aug. 2, and the company will be filing similar requests in the future.

Only people who do not pay their bills for six months and ignore a court order to pay will be targeted by the company, Kommersant said.

MGTS became the first fixed-line operator to seek travel bans for nonpayers, but mobile phone operator MTS has filed similar requests since 2009.

(Published by The Moscow Times - September 2, 2010)