Telenor offices in Norway raided in competition probe

OSLO (Reuters) - European and Norwegian authorities raided the offices of telecoms firm Telenor (TEL.OL), investigating it over suspected abuse of a dominant market position and anti-competitive practices, it said on Tuesday.

"They came to our offices today and their investigation relates to our leading position in the Norwegian market," spokesman Tor Odland said. "We will of course cooperate with them."

The investigation encompasses mobile communication services at wholesale and retail level in Norway, including voice, SMS, MMS and data, as well as mobile services sold in bundles that include other products and services, Telenor said in a statement.

The Norwegian Competition Authority confirmed the raid and said it was intended to collect information either to confirm or dismiss suspicions Telenor breached anti-monopoly laws.

"The fact that the Competition Authority carries out a raid does not mean that the companies are guilty of crimes and says nothing about the ultimate outcome of the case," the watchdog said in a statement.

Telenor is Norway's biggest mobile firm, holding about two-thirds of the fixed voice market and half of the mobile voice, fixed broadband, and mobile data market.

(Reporting by Balazs Koranyi and Joachim Dagenborg; Editing by Jane Merriman and Helen Massy-Beresford)