Five mobile phone operators have been found guilty of price-fixing by the Dutch competition authorities and ordered to pay big fines.

The competition authority has imposed fines totalling 88m euros ($91.7m; �57.2m) on the five companies.

It said that from June 2001 on they had conspired to cut the fees paid to retailers, and share information on prepaid, non-contract customers.

The regulator said the practice was initiated by Vodafone's Libertel unit, fined 15.2m euros, and Deutsche Telekom's local unit BEN, which was fined 24m euros.

'Substantial' fines

However, it said the other operators also took part and levied fines on Dutchtone, owned by France Telecom, Royal KPN and mmo2's local operations.

NMa, the Netherlands competition regulator, said in a statement that the fines were the biggest it had ever imposed.

"This is harmful to the consumer because mutual competition between the various mobile operators was almost eliminated," it said.

KPN, as the market leader, found itself hit with the biggest charge of 31.3m euros.

It said it would appeal the amount, which it insisted "in no way reflects the magnitude of the matter", but would take a charge on its earnings in 2002.

Spanish ruling

Vodafone was also found to be in the wrong by Spain's telecoms regulator on Monday.

The regulator gave Vodafone Espana three months to comply with a order to open its network to a rival operator, Abbla Mobile.

The Spanish regulator has the right to take change of the negotiations if Vodafone Espana's mobile unit Airtel fails to agree a deal with Abbla Mobile within three months.