The Supreme Court rules Tele2 must pay SEK 500 million to TeliaSonera

As The Supreme Court in Sweden on April 4, 2008, refused Tele2 leave to appeal, Tele2 must now, after a dispute of several years, pay approximately SEK 500 million to TeliaSonera. This ruling will have a positive impact of some SEK 500 million on TeliaSonera’s cash flow when Tele2 makes the payment. The penalty interest included in the court decision will positively affect TeliaSonera’s financial items in the first quarter, 2008, by approximately SEK 275 million.

Having suffered setbacks at the District court and the Court of appeal, Tele2 turned to The Supreme Court to avoid paying the interconnection fees on which the Swedish National Post and Telecom Agency had issued a decision in the autumn of 2001. The interconnection fees relate to calls initiated in Tele2’s network and terminated in TeliaSonera’s fixed networks. Tele2 now has to pay TeliaSonera approximately SEK 500 million.

It is still unclear when Tele2 will pay the amount, but after the decision issued by the District court on May 2, 2006, TeliaSonera requested the Senior Enforcement Officer to secure that Tele2 will be able to pay the amount.

“It feels extremely good that this dispute, which has been ongoing for almost seven years, has now come to an end and that we will finally be paid for the service we have provided to Tele2,” says Björn Lindegren, Senior Legal Counsel, business area Broadband Services, TeliaSonera.

The decision of The Supreme Court confirms the obligation of operators to comply with valid decisions and that penalty interest for delayed payment is to be based on unpaid interconnection fees.

Interconnection is needed when a customer of one operator wishes to reach a person who is in another operator’s network. The operator in whose network the call is initiated concludes an agreement with the receiving operator, which undertakes to switch the call to the desired number. The operator that receives traffic in its network charges an interconnection fee for its service.

TeliaSonera AB discloses the information provided herein pursuant to the Swedish Securities Markets Act and/or the Swedish Financial Instrument Trading Act. The information was submitted for publication at 9 am CET on April 11, 2008.

For further information journalists can contact:
TeliaSonera AB, +46-(0)8-713 58 30

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