October 18 (SeeNews) - Bulgaria's competition regulator said it imposed a fine of 5.2 million levs ($2.92 million/2.65 million euro) on the local unit of Norway's telecommunications group Telenor for publicly spreading false information about the characteristics of their 4G LTE network for a period of 10 months.
"The possibility of misleading the current and potential customers of Telenor Bulgaria on the data transfer speed through 4G LTE network is completely real. The statement of about 40 times faster upload at the beginning of the campaign is significantly exaggerated, as the achievable maximum speed of upload, after the occurrence of the regulatory requirement for publication, proves only about 6.5 times higher than that of Telenor’s 3G network," the Commission for Protection of Competition said in a statement on Monday.
The fine represents 1% of Telenor Bulgaria's 2015 net sales revenue of 524.2 million levs., the CPC added.
Telenor Bulgaria launched its 4G/LTE network In December 2015.
The CPC imposed the fine following a complaint from 4G operator Max.
"With the release of its 4G LTE network Telenor deceived the consumers and thus it could affect their economic behavior when choosing mobile internet [provider]," Max CEO Neycho Velichkov said in a separate statement.
On the mobile segment, Telenor Bulgaria competes with Mtel, the local unit of Telekom Austria, Bulgarian telecommunications group BTC, which operates under the brand name Vivacom, as well as with 4G operator Max.
(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)