Czech mobile operator Cesky Mobil has filed a lawsuit against its two rivals, asking for 1.6 billion crowns in compensation for damage linked to different prices they charged, a well-informed source told the CTK news agency.

Cesky Mobil said market leader Eurotel and T-Mobile charged lower prices for calls to their networks and higher prices for calls to its own network.

Cesky Mobil wants one billion crowns from Eurotel and 614 million crowns from T-Mobile.

The two rivals were not immediately available for comment.

Cesky Mobil spokesman Petr Sindler said the lawsuit followed a decision made by the antitrust office in 2002, when Eurotel and T-Mobile were fined a total of 63 million crowns for price differences.

At that time, Eurotel was to pay 48 million and T-Mobile was fined 15 million crowns.

The companies filed an appeal which has not yet been decided.

The operators charged clients calling Cesky Mobil's Oskar network between one and 10 crowns more, depending on their pricing programme. This prevented Cesky Mobil from attracting more clients, the company claims.

(NewsBase 07.vi.04)