Tele2 Files Complaint On Spain Mobile Access - Source

MADRID -(Dow Jones)- Swedish telecommunications company Tele2 AB (TEL2-B.SK) has filed a complaint with Spain's industry regulator CMT, claiming that Spanish mobile telephone operators are blocking its plans to resell mobile calls, a person close to the situation said Thursday.

In the complaint, filed some months ago, Tele2 is requesting that the regulator take measures to facilitate access to networks owned by the operators Telefonica Moviles SA (TEM), Vodafone PLC (VOD) and Grupo Auna SA's (AUNA.YY) Amena, said the person.

Tele2 said last month that it had failed to clinch a deal with the three existing Spanish operators to become the first mobile virtual network operator, or MVNO, in the country. The company has already launched MVNO services in six other European countries.

An MVNO operator leases all or most of its capacity from other operators and then sells it on to customers. The MVNO operator saves the cost of building and maintaining a network.

Besides Tele2, UK's BT Group PLC (BT), Spain's Jazztel PLC (JAZ.MC) and two smaller local companies have licenses to provide MVNO services in Spain, even if none has reached a deal with the operators.

Under a 2002 government ruling, any company can obtain Spanish MVNO licenses, but operators aren't forced to provide access unless they wish to do so.

Spain's government has commissioned a report from the CMT, to be delivered in July, to study new measures to boost the development of MVNO in the country.

Tele2 has fixed-line operations in Spain, mainly based on reselling digital subscriber line, or DSL, high-speed connections over the telephone network owned by the Spanish incumbent Telefonica SA (TEF).

Tele2 and Telefonica Moviles declined to comment, while spokespeople for Vodafone and Amena were unavailable.

Company Web site: http://www.tele2.com

-By David Roman, Dow Jones Newswires, 34 913958125, david.roman@dowjones.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires"

Posted to the site on 23rd June 2005