14 DAY TRIAL // Two of the largest wireless services providers in Romania, namely Orange and Vodafone, were fined a total of 63 million Euros, autonomous administrative body Competition Council announced today in an official statement. Orange was fined 34,8 million Euros, while Vodafone's penalty tops 28,3 million Euros. The Competition Council took the decision to fine the two telecoms companies following an investigation launched back in 2006, which was concluded only recently.
Apparently, these operators took advantage of their dominant position on the local market, and prevented interconnections between their networks and Netmaster Communications, a landline telecoms company.
Back in 2006, Netmaster Communications complained about Orange and Vodafone's determination to block all incoming calls from its network. The company accused the two and RomTelecom, the major landline telecoms provider in Romania, of allying to prevent competitors from expanding.
Due to the lack of a competitive environment, these carriers were offered the chance to set their own fees for the services offered to end users, which would have been higher than usual.
Netmaster Communications dissolved in 2007, but the Competition Council continued the investigation, and announced that Orange and Vodafone were fined with the aforementioned amount of money.
Following the announcement, Orange and Vodafone provided official statements on the matter, stating that the decision would not be justified.
Orange Romania suggested that the decision has nothing to do with its relation with other mobile carriers in the country, and that it would be the result of erroneous interpretation of evidence in the case.
As for Vodafone, they claim that they did nothing to prevent Netmaster Communications from accessing their network. The carrier said that it actually had an agreement with the company, which enabled interoperability between networks.
The two mobile phone operators said they will appeal. According to Romanian news site gandul.info, the fine might increase to 50 million Euros for each wireless carrier.