Spain says mobile operators colluded on price

MADRID (Reuters) - Three mobile phone operators in Spain fixed tariffs in March 2007 to compensate for a new law banning rounding up call periods, Spain's Competition Commission said on Thursday, citing initial findings of an investigation.

Movistar, the mobile telecoms arm of Spain's Telefonica (TEF.MC: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), France Telecom-owned Orange (FTE.PA: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and Vodafone (VOD.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) were anti-competitive by raising in unison the connection charge of a call to 15 cents from 12 cents, the Commission said.

The anti-trust regulator opened an investigation in October after complaints from consumer groups, a spokeswoman for the Commission said. The companies have 15 days to respond to the findings before the Commission writes a final report, she said.

Telefonica declined to comment. No-one at Vodafone or Orange was immediately available to comment.

The Spanish law introduced in March 2007 prevented mobile phone companies rounding up the duration of a call to the nearest minute, cutting a source of revenue for the operators.

More than half of all mobile phone calls are less than one minute long, analysts say.

(Reporting by Ben Harding, writing by Sonya Dowsett, editing by Will Waterman)