Norway: Telenor fined US$96m by competition regulator

Norway’s Competition Authority fined Telenor 788 million crowns (US$96m ) on Thursday reported Reuters. The regulator said the country’s largest telecoms provider had abused its dominant market position.

The case concerned the planned introduction of a third mobile phone network in Norway to compete with those of Telenor and Sweden’s Telia Company, which the Norwegian company had resisted, the regulator said.

From 2007, Network Norway and Tele2 jointly sought to build a third nationwide mobile phone network, and bought access for its customers to Telenor’s network for the areas it had not yet developed. In 2010, Telenor altered the conditions of the agreement in a way that killed any economic incentive to build a separate network, the regulator said.

“The Competition Authority has found that Telenor deliberately altered the access agreement to stop Network Norway’s further investments in the third network,” it said in a statement.

“We disagree that we have violated the Competition Act,” Telenor said in a statement, adding it was likely to file an appeal.

Full Content: Reuters

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