Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK

TELENOR

Cartel probe into division of Sweden’s 4G network

The Swedish Competition Authority (Konkurrensverket) is looking into whether the division of the Sweden's new 4G network by the country's five big mobile operators may have been an attempt to exclude other players from entering the market.

Published: 22 September 2009 13:31 CEST

The partition of the network took place in November 2008 through an agreement generally referred to as a “frequency pact”.

At that time, the five mobile giants involved, TeliaSonera, Telenor, Tele 2, Swefour and Three, presented an agreement regarding how Sweden’s 900 Mhz bandwidth would be divided.

However, the so-called “frequency pact” has been called questionIn by operator Ventelo, which reported the arrangement made through the Swedish Post and Telecom Agency (PTS) to the EU commission in the spring of 2009.

The move provoked a succession of critical questions from Brussels, leading the Swedish government to order an investigation of the pact by the Competition Authority.

According to the magazine Computer Sweden, the investigation is still ongoing.

“Market division is particularly serious type of infraction. Within their agreement, the operators have refrained from competing over a valuable commodity. In addition, the agreement implies that the entirety of the 900 MHz bandwidth will be shared amongst the five largest companies with telecommunications in Sweden”, writes the Competition Authority.

In addition, the agency believes the pact hinders current and potential competition, including competitors from other EU member states, from entering the Swedish market for the next 15 years.

Sweden’s Ministry of Enterprise, Energy and Communications (Näringsdepartementet) is due to provide the EU commission with an response by mid-October.

Should their findings indicate that the agreement stands in violation of EU regulations, the licensing distribution process will have to be redone.

The investigation covers not only how the frequency division was made, but also poses questions as to whether the five operators are guilty of illegal cartel building during the course of their collaboration.

“We are investigating whether the cooperation was in breach of competition laws, whether it imposes limits on the competition,” Staffan Martinsson of the Swedish Competition Authority told the TT news agency.

If the mobile operators end up in court for illegal cartel building, they can expect to pay hefty fines.

”That might be the case, but I don’t want to speculate right now,” said Martinsson.

In the most extensive case of cartel building to come to light in Sweden, several companies were found guilty of dividing up the Swedish asphalt market.

The total fines amounted to 200 million kronor ($29 million).

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.

TELIASONERA

‘Rotten’ business claims at Nordic TeliaSonera

Swedish-Finnish telecom operator TeliaSonera has been accused of “rotten” business dealings in Azerbaijan, following a separate bribery scandal in Uzbekistan.

Published: 27 May 2015 10:03 CEST
'Rotten’ business claims at Nordic TeliaSonera
A TeliaSonera conference in Stockholm last year. Photo: TT

Folksam, which is one of the largest insurance companies in Sweden, has accused the firm of “systematic cheating”, after it emerged that TeliaSonera’s subsidiary in Azerbaijan had ties with the family of Ilham Aliyev, the Arab nation’s leader.

It has been claimed that the dictator’s daughters were shareholders of TeliaSonera's subsidiary Azertel, via a connected company based in Panama.

“It is distressing that in a large Swedish company…people thought that cheating would pay off in the long run,” Carina Lundberg Markow, one of Folksam’s managers told the TT news agency on Wednesday.

She criticized TeliaSonera for failing to act “in an honest and open way” when entering new markets.

“Instead, they choose to pay for success,” she added.

TeliaSonera is one of the biggest telecom operators in the Nordic and Baltic countries and also operates in several emerging markets in Eurasia including Russia and Turkey, as well as Spain. The Swedish state owns 37.3 percent of the company.

Swedish prosecutor Gunnar Stetler is already investigating claims of unethical business practices in Uzbekistan and told TT he had also been given new information concerning potential bribery in Azerbaijan.

The company has voluntarily cooperated with the investigation, handing over what Stetler describes as “extensive information” about “the terms and conditions in Eurasian countries”.

Stetler said he was unable to discuss how he had responded to the information. But calls are growing for TeliaSonera to release a public report about its business dealings.

“Now it is extremely important to create transparency,” said Lundberg Markow.

“This shows the importance of having a set of values when doing business in complex markets or countries,” she added.

TeliaSonera and Norwegian rival Telenor recently merged their operations in Denmark, while the telecoms giant last year purchased rival Tele2's Norwegian division for 5.1 kronor.