Spain MNOs 'uncompetitive'
October 18, 2007
Spain’s competition watchdog has launched a probe of the country’s three largest mobile-phone operators for possible collusion, Spain’s Consumer and Users Organisation said.
The National Competition Commission is investigating whether Telefonica’s Movistar, Vodafone and France Telecom’s Orange co-ordinated a rise in their tariffs in March. All three raised tariffs to compensate for the banning of a system whereby the three dominant operators rounded prices up to the nearest minute. The practice netted the three some E1.21bn based on 2005 figures, the Consumer and Users Organisation said.