LONDON (Thomson Financial) - The telecoms regulator on Thursday fined the Greek unit of UK mobile giant Vodafone 19.1 mln eur for violating network regulations in a wire-tapping scandal that rocked the country last year.

The fine is the second handed to Vodafone Hellas over the case after a 76 mln eur penalty levelled by Greece's communication privacy watchdog last December.

Some 100 Vodafone cellphones in February 2006 were found to have been compromised by an illicit network that tapped sets used by Greek Premier Costas Karamanlis, his wife and several ministers from June 2004 to March 2005.

The tapping used software slipped into Vodafone's network by unknown perpetrators to illegally activate an Ericsson-made module permitting call interception.

On Thursday, the national telecommunications regulator EETT accused Vodafone of breaching regulations on the protection of telecommunications privacy, network maintenance and quality, and consumer protection.

The company rejected last December's fine as 'illegal, unfair and baseless.'

A Greek parliament committee collecting evidence on the case last November noted the involvement of three employees of telecoms giants Ericsson Hellas and Vodafone Greece, identified only by their initials.

'The whole system could not operate without Ericsson know-how and without access from within (Vodafone),' the report said.

The Greek branch of Swedish telecom equipment giant Ericsson has also been fined 7.36 mln eur over the case.

The parliamentary committee did not rule out the involvement of other people operating outside Greece.

The Greek justice department has opened an investigation into the case but nobody has yet been charged.

Days before the affair came to light, a senior Vodafone expert was found hanged inside his home.

The death of Costas Tsalikidis, manager of Vodafone Greece's network planning section, was linked to the case and his family suspects he was murdered.

big orders are being worked on here and at mrw .mms have a good job .
when they have been filled you will no.

So this has nothing to do with today's fall ?

India Securities Ltd. (500204.BY) Thursday said a court has cleared its merger with Essar Telecommunications Holdings Pvt. Ltd., with the judge saying that Vodafone Group PLC (VOD.LN) has no right to oppose the proposal.

The Madras High Court's ruling follows its rejection of Vodafone's plea opposing the merger of the two Essar Group companies.

Essar was U.K.-based Vodafone's Indian partner in the Vodafone Essar Ltd. joint venture.

A spokesman for Vodafone Essar declined to comment, while executives at Vodafone weren't immediately available.

Vodafone and the Essar Group have been locked in a battle over how the Indian conglomerate would exit the joint venture.

On March 31, Vodafone said it has agreed to pay $5 billion to buy out the Essar group's 33% stake in the Indian venture. As part of the deal, the Essar Group agreed to exercise its right to sell a 22% stake to Vodafone while the British company exercised its right to buy a further 11% stake held by Essar. Both companies didn't disclose further terms of the deal.

The Essar Group owns 10.97% of Vodafone Essar through its India-registered unit Essar Telecommunications Holdings. The group wants to wants to merge Essar Telecommunications Holdings into listed but little-known India Securities to help put a value on its stake in the joint venture with Vodafone.

But Vodafone objects, saying it is concerned that the value of India Securities after the merger could be misinterpreted as a fair market value for the unlisted Vodafone-Essar.

Vodafone has a pact with the Essar Group, which gives the Indian conglomerate a put option for its 33% stake that it can sell to the U.K. company for $5 billion between the third and fourth years of the deal's completion.

The alternative is that Essar Group could have sold shares in the venture worth between $1 billion and $5 billion to Vodafone at a market-determined price, to be evaluated by two investment bankers, with one each appointed by the two parties.

In the case of a dispute over the valuation, a third banker would be appointed jointly by the companies to make a final decision on the worth of the stake.

Under the second option, Vodafone would need to pay an additional $725 million over the market-determined price--as agreed by the two parties--to account for the extra debt that Vodafone Essar has due to its investments in third-generation mobile operations, including the $2.8 billion it paid to get the bandwidth.

Earlier Thursday, the Press Trust of India reported that the Madras court had also rejected the objection of India's income tax department against the proposed merger.

It will be interesting to see if Verizon's tripled Q1 profit has much effect.

Yes VOD SP has dropped further. ???

VOD seem to be learning the hard way how difficult it is to do business in India.

tanks - don't be such an arrogant shit :-))

added 170k worth could not resist

Oversold imo.

looking for 190 to 210p in 6 month

2.5m buy just

one thing's for sure - VOD won't be going belly up

Unlike HMV, DXNS, YELL, GAME

next tueday vod could raise the div to over 8p for final div .

swimming in cash and buyback and div rise on cards , buy buy buy

spending billions on share buybacks hasn't done much for the sp, shareholders certainly would rather have a larger dividend.

swimming in cash and buyback and div rise on cards , buy buy buy ..... very similar mantra to what you posted on MRW .... and i applaud you for buying VOD at 269, seemingly today, for that looks to have been even below the bottom

halifax . i posted on here to buy mrw at 265p which i did sold out in the lst couple of days at 308p i am now telling posters to buy VOD good up date next week will push these up ex div 1st june and expecting a good rise in div . cash is going to be given back to holders .

MRW - you did indeed, but unlike you, i am happy to keep holding them

cynic i WILL buy back mrw at under 285p in june . vod have almost ended there bu back and still have to much cash so i think a bigger div . good luck to you and good health . i am going to sell vod at 185p

cynic there could be a sell off before close in mrw before ex