MOSCOW, April 23 - RAPSI. The Moscow Commercial Court has turned down a lawsuit to withdraw licenses for GSM-1800 services from Tele2 subsidiaries, the court told the Russian Legal Information Agency (RAPSI/rapsinews.ru).

The plaintiffs also requested to return the radiofrequencies to the state for another tender.

Defendants include the Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, IT and Mass Media, the State Radio Frequencies Commission and the Mass Communications Ministry.

Tenders for standard GSM communication services within the 1,800 MHz frequency range were held in several Russian regions in 2007. Five Tele 2 subsidiaries were among the successful bidders.

The plaintiffs hold that STREAMTONE and Geocom did not meet some tender conditions.

According to the plaintiffs, the watchdog was obliged to cancel Tele2's license in view of the violations and to place them up for tender once again.

The plaintiffs believe the service's actions should be qualified as inaction.

The regulator argued that it had challenged in court the operator's failure to comply with the license terms, both parties entered into a settlement agreement and Tele2 rectified all the faults.

Tele2 stated in court that the plaintiff did not produce credible evidence of its non-compliance.