Spain's Ministry of Industry has announced that France Telecom and TeliaSonera have both been granted radio spectrum as part of the government's auction. France Telecom has committed to invest EUR433 million (US$600 million) in its network over the next three years in exchange for a block of 900Mhz spectrum. TeliaSonera's local subsidiary, Yoigo offered EUR300 million over the same time frame for a block of 1800Mhz spectrum. The company expects to be able to expand its network and reduce its reliance on a national roaming agreement with Telefonica. The two largest networks, Telefonica Movistar and Vodafone were barred from this round of the auction. The auction process will continue in the coming days, with more spectrum open to other operators, and will likely be completed by June 2, the ministry said.

See Press Release
Source: Cellular-News

Price reductions expected for landline and broadband customers

New prices that Openreach, BT’s wholesale access division, can charge communications providers for access to some of its main wholesale telecoms services were today proposed by Ofcom.The prices are regulated by Ofcom because Openreach has been found to have significant market power in the delivery of these services.

Ofcom expects its proposed prices to lead to real term price reductions for consumers, as communications providers pass on savings to their landline and broadband customers.

Competitive landline and broadband markets

Today’s consultation relates to wholesale charges for telephone and broadband services delivered to homes and businesses over BT’s copper network in two ways:

 

·         Local Loop Unbundling (LLU), which allows communications providers to install their equipment in Openreach’s telephone exchanges to provide broadband and telephone services to their customers; and

·         Wholesale Line Rental (WLR), which is used by communications providers to offer telephone services to consumers using lines rented from Openreach.

 

These wholesale products underpin the competitive provision of broadband and landline services in the UK.  LLU can be supplied alongside or in combination with WLR, providing choice and flexibility for consumers.

The number of ‘unbundled’ lines has increased from 123,000 in September 2005 to 7.59 million today and there are 6.14 million WLR connections in the UK, enabling a range of communications providers to offer landline and broadband services.

 

See Press Release
Source: OFCOM

Ancom launches for public consultation the document that reviews the regulatory measures on the market for the provision of full or shared unbundled access to the local loop. The local loop is the physical circuit between an end-user and the main distribution frame of a fixed public telephone network or the equivalent element of a public electronic communications network. The local loop may be used to provide both telephone services at fixed locations and broadband electronic communications services.

See Press release
Source: ANCOM

Como una medida para impulsar la competitividad, promover las inversiones brindar certeza jurídica, y apoyar al sector telecomunicaciones, la Secretaría de Comunicaciones y Transportes (SCT) da por concluidos 22 títulos de concesión para operar sistemas de radiolocalización de personas (paggin) y dos títulos de transmisión de radio y TV restringidas, con ello, recupera espectro radioeléctrico para ser aprovechado con nuevas tecnologías.

La resolución se realizo luego de no presentarse en tiempo y forma las solicitudes de prorroga así como por comprobar tecnología obsoleta de estas técnicas de transmisión.

De esta manera, la SCT busca impulsar la competitividad del sector, y generar un ambiente favorable para la planeación de los negocios, así como favorecer a los consumidores con una más amplia variedad de servicios y proveedores.

Finalmente, la dependencia considera que los criterios indispensables para el desarrollo saludable del sector son: fomentar la competencia y evitar el acaparamiento del espectro; garantizar la explotación eficiente del espectro y el pago de una contraprestación por las concesiones; incrementar la cobertura de los servicios; Introducir nuevas tecnologías; y, permitir la continuidad de los servicios para el usuario.

 

See Press Release

Source: Secretaria de Comunicaciones y Transporte

Federal Communications Commission (FCC)  previously embraced four open Internet principles affirming that consumers must be able to access the lawful Internet content, applications, and services of their choice, and attach non-harmful devices to the network. Chairman Genachowski proposed the addition of two new principles. The first would prevent Internet access providers from discriminating against particular Internet content or applications, while allowing for reasonable network management. The second principle would ensure that Internet access providers are transparent about the network management practices they implement.

The FCC has created a new section on Open Internet.

Source: FCC

The Review of BT Network Charge Controls proposes a range of new controls for some wholesale charges paid by other Communication Providers for use of BT’s network. Network Charge Controls protect BT’s wholesale customers from excessive pricing for these services, and provide BT with incentives for efficiency and cost reduction in their provision. Ofcom is proposing new network charge controls for the next four years. The consultation can be found here. 
 
The Review of the Fixed Narrowband Services Retail Markets relates to telephone lines and voice calls made by consumers and businesses. Ofcom proposes to deregulate BT’s retail products  in those markets where Ofcom has found healthy competition. This competition is a result of Ofcom opening up the market in 2005 with the creation of Openreach and improved wholesale products like Local Loop Unbundling and Wholesale Line Rental. Today’s proposals seek to further competition in the voice market. For the first time BT will be able to offer telephone lines and calls as part of a bundle of other services (such as broadband or Pay-TV) like other communications providers do at the moment. The consultation can be found here. 

In the Review of the Fixed Narrowband Services Wholesale Markets, Ofcom proposes to deregulate certain specific BT wholesale products where Ofcom considers the market is now competitive. Ofcom proposes to keep regulation in other wholesale areas where it supports healthy competition in the retail market. The consultation can be found here.

Source: OFCOM
 

On 6 October 2008, Eircom Limited (‘Eircom’) launched promotional “TalkTime” bundles that included free calls to Meteor.   Since that launch, the Commission for Communications Regulation (‘ComReg’) has been monitoring average actual usage, average total revenue and average total cost of the TalkTime bundles to ensure that Eircom is meeting its regulatory obligations1.  Based on ComReg’s review of the actual data provided by Eircom, ComReg has today issued a notice of non-compliance to Eircom in relation to its obligation not to unreasonably bundle fixed retail narrowband access, that is, retail line rental, with other retail services.  The notification of non-compliance issued relates to the 1MB and 3MB Family TalkTime bundles only.  The annex includes details of the analysis carried out by ComReg.  ComReg has reserved its position in relation to the other promotional bundles that include free calls to Meteor and will continue to review actual data to ensure that Eircom is meeting its regulatory obligations. Eircom has one month either to respond to the notification of non-compliance issued or to remedy the non-compliance.

See Notice and documents
Source: Comreg
 

Having considered the responses to Consultation, ComReg has now decided that the initial proposal to revoke the previous ODTR Decision NoticeD8/014, insofar as it relates to LLU Line Share recurring charges and the methodology for the calculation of LLU Line Share recurring charges, as the current mechanism for arriving at the price of LLU Line Share, is still appropriate. ComReg has also
decided to proceed to impose a maximum price of €2.94 per month for an interim period of one year. This decision corrects the current anomaly in the way in which Eircom recovers the cost of the local loop which could give rise to an over recovery of network costs from other operators availing of LLU Line Share.

See Document
Source: ComReg

The 8^th Global Symposium for Regulators took place from 11 to 13 March 2008 in Pattaya, Thailand. This major ITU event focused on best practices in regulatory measures to foster and encourage sharing of infrastructure resources as a means of stimulating investment and growth in the ICT sector.

Ten discussion papers were developed for this year's GSR:

1. What do we mean by 6 Degrees of Sharing?
2. Extending Open Access to National Fibre Backbones in Developing Countries
3. International Gateway Liberalization: the Singapore experience
4. Breaking Up is Hard to Do: The Emergence of Functional Separation as a Regulatory Remedy
5. Mobile Sharing
6. Spectrum Sharing
7. WRC-07 Results and Impact on Terrestrial Broadband Wireless Access Systems
8. End-User Sharing
9. International Mobile Roaming Regulation – An Incentive for Cooperation
10. IPTV and Mobile TV: New Challenges for Regulators

Comments are welcome by 13 April 2008 at: gsr08@itu.int.   

More information on the event as well as the presentations from the panel sessions can be found at the GSR 2008 website.

See: Press release 

Source: ITU

ARCEP is launching today its second cycle of fixed telephony market analysis. It is submitting to public consultation its plan which involves deregulating the fixed telephony retail markets and focusing solely on access and interconnection which constitute a long-time bottleneck (access to the telephone network, call origination and termination).

The document is open to public consultation until 4^th April 2008 at 5.00 PM. Responses must be sent to the following address: fixe@arcep.fr.

This document, with player contributions, will then be submitted to the competition authority, Conseil de la Concurrence, for its opinion.

See Press release and document

Source: ARCEP

El presidente del Instituto Dominicano de las Telecomunicaciones (Indotel), doctor José Rafael Vargas, afirmó que la teledensidad en el país “ya supera el 70%, una realidad que pocos países del mundo pueden exhibir”, y sostuvo, asimismo, que “República Dominicana forma parte del selecto grupo de países en desarrollo que cuenta con la más avanzada infraestructura de telecomunicaciones”.

See Press Release
Source: Instituto Dominicano de las Telecomunicaciones (INDOTEL)

ANRT, Morocco's regulator, has decided for full unbundling starting July 2008. Many others are expected to follow in North Africa, in 2008.

file_fr1382.pdf (65,38 KB)

Source: ANRT

Australia’s small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and the rural sector are reasonably connected online and on the phone, with 92 per cent of SMEs and 74 per cent of farms having an internet connection, and 93 per cent and 85 per cent respectively reporting the use of a mobile phone.
The reports found that broadband take-up is high especially among SMEs, with 91 per cent of those connected using broadband. For the farm sector, there is a continuing reliance on dial-up internet connections: 53 per cent of respondents with an internet connection reported using dial-up. Satellite connection accounts for almost 50 per cent of those respondents with broadband.

See Press Release
Source: ACMA - Australian Communications and Media Authority

In a decision, Moroccan regulator ANRT has decreed partial unbundling starting this month and full unbundling next July. Operators elsewhere in North Africa are beginning to advocate these in their country.

See Decision 

Source: ANRT

Geneva, 4 September 2007 — ITU has released a major publication, Trends in Telecommunication Reform: the Road to NGN. In its 8th edition, Trends reports on the evolution of circuit-switched telecommunication into "next-generation" networks, as operators around the world fight to remain competitive. The Report aims at enabling regulators and policy-makers in developing countries to better understand the changes transforming the ICT sector so they can evolve their policy and regulatory frameworks to leverage today’s technological and market developments.

What does NGN mean for regulators? They have many choices to make. Some view NGN as the intersection of the telecom and Internet worlds. If so, which regulatory regime should apply? The current heavily-regulated telecom regulatory model? The lightly-regulated Internet model? Or some new hybrid model? The migration to NGN affords an opportunity for regulators to analyze current practices and revise them in light of what makes sense going forward. This Trends report offers a detailed discussion of the kinds of measures that are needed to ensure that regulation keeps pace with technological and market developments so that the best of NGN is available to all of the world’s people.

The ITU press release is available in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish.

More information about the content of the 2007 report is available at the “On the Road to NGN” website.

The publication is available for sale at the ITU bookshop.

Colombia's communications ministry Mincomunicaciones (Mincom) has issued a decree creating a universal concession license for providing long distance telephony and internet services as well as obliging operators to unbundle their networks, Mincom said in statement.

The decree allows operators to offer any added value over the internet or long distance without having to ask for separate licenses. The decree follows a decision by telecoms regulator CRT in July to create a new numbering scheme for long distance services that is designed to encourage more operators to enter the market. Full Press release

Source: Business News Americas

 

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The Federal Network Agency has today announced three decisions on charges for the telecommunications sector. All three approvals relate to wholesale products which Deutsche Telekom AG (DT AG) offers its competitors based on regulatory obligations.

Newly approved as of 1 July 2007 were the one-off charges that competitors will have to pay to DT AG when renting or returning a local loop (TAL). While the monthly charges to be paid for the surrender of the local loop, which were last approved on 30 March 2007, cover primarily the investments required for items such as material and laying the "last mile", the one-off charges approved now relate predominantly to the administrative processing of the order and the changeover measures required at DT AG's technical facilities, which have to be carried out by DT AG when a TAL is provided to competitors or cancelled by them.

For the most frequent version (a simple takeover of a copper wire pair without any change-over required at the end customer's premises), DT AG will in future be able to demand a provisioning charge of 36.19 Euros. The cancellation charges that competitors will have to pay to DT AG when returning the TAL will now be 5.21 Euros if the end customer returns to DT AG at the same time or changes over to another competitor. If the TAL is returned without a simultaneous switch to DT AG itself or another competitor, the competitor will have to pay a cancellation charge of 20.93 Euros.

Another set of new charges approved as of 1 July 2007 applies to provisioning and cancellation as well as the monthly charge for joint access to the local loop, otherwise known as "line sharing". In the case of line sharing the TAL is divided by spectrum into a lower and a higher frequency range. This enables DT AG to continue to use the lower spectrum for voice transmission while the higher spectrum can be used by a competitor for data transmission (usually for high-speed internet access based on DSL technology).

From 1 July 2007 a monthly charge of 1.91 Euros has been set for granting access to the high-bit-rate part of the TAL. The charge for the most common provisioning model, a new connection without work at the cable distributor or the end customer's premises, will be 60.82 Euros.

The third set of charges that received new approval were the one-off provisioning charges and the charges for the surrender of leased lines, which competitors will need to complete their own networks, the so-called "carrier fixed connections". Where lower charges have been set for these, such reductions had been applied for by DT AG itself. On the other hand an increase in tariffs was denied.

The three decisions did not take into account the result of the collective agreement reached between DT AG and the service workers union ver.di on 20 June 2007 regarding organisational changes and a reduction of income based on the transitional agreements between the parties of the collective agreement and/or any conflicting effects.

The charges approved in connection with the local loop and line sharing were approved until the end of June 2008, the charges for leased lines until the end of March 2008.

Source: Bundesnetzagentur, Germany

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The Federal Network Agency has today informed Deutsche Telekom AG (DTAG) about its decision that DT AG will have to continue to grant its competitors access to the local loop, the so-called "last mile", for another two years. Behind this decision, which consists of two parts - a market definition cum analysis and the regulatory order based thereupon - is the Federal Network Agency's legal obligation to review every two years the market conditions and the obligations imposed upon an undertaking with significant market power.

The market definition and analysis match the Federal Network Agency's decisions to date and have concluded that DT AG still yields significant market power in terms of access to the local loop. For that reason the regulatory order vis-à-vis the undertaking required appropriate measures that would effectively and proportionately counter any market failure resulting from DT AG's significant market power. Accordingly all obligations imposed upon DT AG in the last regulatory order from April 2005 to grant competitors unbundled access to the local loop at fair and non-discriminatory terms and conditions and at charges to be approved ex ante by the Federal Network Agency based on the costs of an efficient service provision, were upheld. In addition DT AG will in future have to open up to competitors its cable conduits between the main distribution frame and the cable distributors. Only if access to the cable conduits is not possible for either technical reasons or for lack of capacity will DT AG be obliged to grant other undertakings access to dark fibre.

"The opening up of cable conduits launched by the regulatory order enacted today is required to enable competitors to build up a fibre optic infrastructure for the use of high-speed broadband systems, just like the one Deutsche Telekom AG is currently building and planning itself on a larger scale, without the time and cost-intensive excavation works usually required for that. As a result of this we protect the interests of the consumers by ensuring the development of sustained competitive structures, inter alia in the area of highspeed broadband connections," explained the president of the Federal Network Agency, Matthias Kurth, upon the announcement of this decision.

The decision to open up cable conduits and to grant access to "naked" fibre only if the former was not possible, was now no longer connected to the issue of regulating "new markets." President Kurth said: "There is no new market here, we are simply dealing with the concrete details of access rights to the local loop, rights that in some cases have been existing for years. The competitors are not granted access to the VDSL infrastructure of Deutsche Telekom, but simply the utilisation of already existing infrastructure of Deutsche Telekom, based on which they can then build their own VDSL capable connection network. In principle that also applies to the access obligations to dark fibre. Because the laying of optical fibres between the main distribution frame and the cable distributor is by no means new. That had already been done during the OPALISIS development carried out by Deutsche Bundespost. Furthermore competitors must only be granted access to dark fibre if there is no more empty duct capacity. In this case it is up to Deutsche Telekom itself to efficiently fill its empty duct capacity and to ensure this ways that competitors can still be offered spare capacity for laying their own optical fibres. Without this obligation Deutsche Telekom would be able to completely fill all its available empty duct capacity, thereby making any rights of the competitors to the unbundled local loop at the cable distributor and therefore a network development in that direction impossible."

In a letter to the Federal Network Agency dated 25 June 2007 the EU Commission had not raised any objections to the Federal Network Agency's market definition for the unbundled access to the local loop. Neither had the EU Commissions stated any drastic doubts with regard to the obligations imposed in the regulatory order. In as much as it had demanded to grant competitors access to DT AG's dark fibre not just if the original terms could not be met, but as a real alternative to access to the cable conduits, the Federal Network Agency was not committed to that and has desisted for reasons of commensurability. Therefore the final decision delivered to DT AG today is largely unchanged when compared to the draft that had been transmitted in accordance with the usual procedure to the EU Commission and other national regulatory authorities on 25 May 2007 for their comments.

"The framework conditions for access to the local loop have been clearly set with today's decision. In this respect there is now planning safety and equal opportunities especially for those competitors who wish to invest into infrastructure for new broadband networks and for whom a long lead-in time and delay are significant in terms of their investment plans. In the interests of everyone involved details which still require clarification, in particular with regard to the concrete technical terms and conditions for access, are now to be mutually agreed between Deutsche Telekom and its competitors as quickly as possible", president Kurth demanded and announced the Federal Network Agency would set the terms and conditions should a voluntary agreement not be brought about. The decision will be published in the Official Gazette of the Federal Network

Agency on 4 July 2007 and can already be downloaded from the Agency's website as of now.

Source: Bundesnetzagentur, Germany 

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The Commerce Commission has reaffirmed its current timetable to develop regulated unbundled local loop and co-location services.  On Tuesday (5 June) Telecom requested a delay in the timeframe to provide its first standard terms proposals due on 12 June.  After considering Telecom’s request, the Commission has decided to stick to the timeframe that it notified to Telecom on 3 April. 

 

“While I understand Telecom’s position, I am concerned by the need to ensure the integrity of the process for all parties and prompt delivery to the market of these key services that will promote competition in telecommunication markets.”  said Douglas Webb, Telecommunications Commissioner.

 

The dates for the delivery of the standard terms proposals were set by the Commission after holding Scoping Workshops with Telecom and other interested parties.  At those workshops, Telecom and the other parties gave their views on the timeframes which were considered when the due dates were set to deliver the proposals.

 

Source: Commerce Commission of New Zealand

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New Delhi, 07 June, 2007- Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has released Regulation on " International Telecommunication Access to Essential Facilities at Cable Landing Stations Regulations, 2007" which provides for the non-discriminatory, fair and open access at the cable landing stations.

A number of submarine cables are landing or terminating in India. These submarine cables terminate at cable landing stations operated and managed by few ILDOs. As such the facilities are predominantly owned by limited number of ILDOs. TRAI considers that access to these cable landing stations by other licensees is necessary for creating a conducive environment and boosting competition in the international bandwidth connectivity / leased circuits segment.

Access to submarine Cable Landing Stations (CLS) is considered an essential input for many telecom services needing international connectivity. Any access barriers to such facility can constrain the competitiveness of telecom operators and become detrimental to healthy growth of international telecom market. Thus for the CLS, which are considered to be essential and critical telecom facilities, it needs to be ensured that any restriction on such facilities should not become a ‘bottleneck’ to international telecom services provision. In pursuance of the recommendations on "Measures to promote competition in International Private Leased Circuits (IPLC) in India", the Department of Telecommunications, after accepting the recommendations, has also amended the relevant clauses in International Long Distance (ILD) Service Licence to ensure efficient, transparent and non-discriminatory access facilities for submarine cables at Cable Landing Stations.

International leased circuits are used by exporters, BPO units/ Call centers, banks, small and medium enterprises (SMEs), ISPs and other information technology enabled service providers. In addition, ILDOs also require international bandwidth connectivity for carrying international voice calls. The Regulation would facilitate:

• provisioning of bandwidth to end consumers at competitive rates;

• boosting of competition and therefore reduction in the price of international private leased circuits (IPLCs);

• availability of International bandwidth at competitive price to ISPs for rapid growth of Broadband Service;

• options to ILDOs to purchase International bandwidth at competitive prices on a range of diversified submarine cables;

• carriage of voice/data at a competitive cost.

The owners of Cable Landing Stations are mandated, from the date of commencement of the Regulation, to submit "Cable Landing Station – Reference Interconnect Offer (CLS-RIO)" containing the terms and conditions of Access Facilitation and Co-location facilities including landing facilities at cable landing stations for International submarine cable capacity in accordance with the specified schedule and provisions in the Regulation within 30 days to the Authority for its approval. The Authority shall approve the CLS – RIO within 60 days. However, if it requires modifications so as to protect the interests of service providers or consumers or to promote orderly growth of the telecom, the Authority will give an opportunity to the owner of Cable Landing Station (CLS) to make necessary modifications and submit within 15 days of receipt of requirement for such modifications in the CLS-RIO for the approval. The owner of CLS shall publish the approved CLS-RIO within 15 days from the date of approval by the Authority. The Regulation would enable the timely provision of International bandwidth connectivity at cable landing stations in a fair, equitable, transparent and non discriminatory manner to eligible International Telecommunication Entities i.e. International Long Distance Operators (ILDOs) and Internet Service Providers (ISPs) with International Gateway permission.

The Regulation provides the time limits for owner of Cable Landing Station for various activities in access facilitation including the provision for co-location facility and the Regulation also provides the time limits for eligible Indian International Telecom Entity to enter into agreement, make payments and arrange backhaul circuits to its premises from Cable Landing Station. The Regulation has a provision for a minimum commitment period of three years for Co-location facility and its renewal till the term of lease of International capacity on submarine cable at cable landing station subject to no default and breach by eligible Indian International Telecom Entity.

The Authority is of the view that there is a need for standard/published access facilitation agreement, which the new service providers can make use of for availing of access to international submarine cable capacity. In the absence of such regulation, there is a scope for delay, in provisioning of access to the capacity acquired by the competing operators, from incumbent International Long Distance Operator (ILDO) and other ILDOs with Significant Market Power (SMP) who own cable landing stations. The Authority also noted that problems have been faced by

some of the ILDOs, who had acquired capacity in a submarine cable system from foreign carriers or International Telecom carriers, desired to access such capacity at the cable landing station of an existing operator.

The highlights of Regulation are:

(a) new service providers have access to the International bandwidth capacity in the same way as the consortium members;

(b) access facilitation is not unduly delayed by consortium members having control over CLS;

(c) transparent and non-discriminatory access at cable landing stations;

(d) well defined responsibilities in terms of functioning;

(e) transparent charges for access, Co-location and landing facilities;

(f) time limit for provision of access, Co-location and landing facilities.

Full text of the "International Telecommunication Access to Essential Facilities at Cable Landing Stations Regulations, 2007 (5 of 2007)" is available on TRAI’s website: www.trai.gov.in

Source: TRAI, India

 

In recent months, major French operators have announced and begun implementing plans to deploy very high-speed access networks in Paris and in certain other large cities.

These initiatives are a part of the continuing dynamic of the high-speed market and put France ahead of its European counterparts. In order to facilitate the efficiency of investments to the benefit of consumers, ARCEP wishes to contribute to the emergence of a framework which is favourable to the development of very high speed. In the next few months, it considers it necessary to go further in depth into two subjects: operator access to ducts and the sharing of the terminal part of networks.

Favouring operator deployments by sharing ducts

The total renewal of the copper local loop with fibre optic local loops requires an investment of tens of billions of euros. Civil engineering costs and the laying of ducts represent more than half of the cost of building a new fixed local loop. Under these circumstances, the possibility of using civil engineering infrastructures (ducts, rooms) is a key factor in operators’ economic equation.

A number of projects are underway in this sense:

First, the Comité des Réseaux d'Initiative Publique (CRIP), a forum for discussion and exchange between ARCEP, local governments and operators, is examining how local governments might intervene in favour of very high speed, such as laying extra ducts during roadworks and leasing them to operators.

=> Points of reference will be published before the end of the year

Next, ARCEP has initiated works to evaluate the advisability and feasibility of regulating the incumbent’s ducts. Indeed, in 1996, France Telecom received the ownership of several hundreds of thousands of kilometres of ducts installed for the telephone and cable plan networks. These infrastructures are only partly occupied and could facilitate the deployment of fibre optic networks.

Such regulation concentrated on the lowest network layers would help to stimulate operator investments by reducing regulation needs on higher layers: fibre network architecture, structure and pricing of activated offers, etc.

=> This summer, ARCEP will submit a market analysis for public consultation bearing on the competitive situation of ducts and their possible regulation

Sharing the terminal part of networks to avoid creating local monopolies

It is indispensable that the terminal part of networks be shared:

• to limit disruptions in apartment buildings and houses by avoiding having different operators lay networks
• to let inhabitants put competition into play between very high speed service providers without being held captive by the first operator to have wired their building

It appears that operators having begun deploying fibre networks in apartment buildings have already told owners and managers that their networks are "shareable".

However, to date, their access or sharing offers have neither been published nor been notified to ARCEP. Some building managers have wondered about this situation.

=> In order to provide transparent information to various players, ARCEP invites operators deploying very high speed networks to send in their technical and pricing offer for access to the terminal part of their network by the end of the month.

ARCEP will pay very special attention to the technical specifications of interfaces, provision tariffs, location of interconnection points, related connection services to interconnection points and equipment hosting.

=> A document submitted for public consultation will then explain the main conditions necessary for the terminal part of a fibre network to be effectively shared by the various very high speed operators under reasonable technical and economic conditions.

***

In order to coordinate the various works in progress, a very high speed project leader has been designed at ARCEP. This position will be held by Sébastien Soriano, head of the FTTx and unbundling unit.

Source: ARCEP

New Delhi, 13 April, 2007- Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) released Consultation Paper - "Access to Essential Facilities (including Landing Facilities for Submarine Cables) at Cable Landing Stations" along-with draft regulation which mandates the non-discriminatory, fair and open access at the cable landing stations. Accordingly, owners of Cable Landing Stations will have to publish the "Cable Landing Station – Reference Interconnect Offer" after approval by TRAI.

Cable Landing Station - Reference Interconnect Offer shall contain the terms and conditions for access facilitation, charges and time limit for various activities in such facilitation including the provisions for co-location facility. Proposed regulation would enable the timely provision of International bandwidth connectivity at cable landing stations in a fair, equitable, transparent and non discriminatory manner to International Telecommunication Entities i.e. International Long Distance Operators (ILDOs) and Internet Service Providers (ISPs) with International Gateway permission.

A number of submarine cables are landing or terminating in India. These submarine cables terminate at cable landing stations operated and managed by few ILDOs. As such the facilities are predominantly owned by only few ILDOs. TRAI believes that access to these cable landing stations by other licensees is necessary for creating a conducive environment and boosting competition in the international bandwidth connectivity / leased circuits segment.

Access to submarine Cable Landing Stations (CLS) is considered an essential input for many telecom services needing international connectivity. Any access barriers to such facility can constrain the competitiveness of telecom operators and become detrimental to healthy growth of international telecom market.

Thus for the CLS, which are considered to be essential and critical telecom facilities, it needs to be ensured that any restriction on such facilities should not become a ‘bottleneck’ to international telecom service provision. Accordingly, TRAI had made recommendations to the Department of Telecommunications on "Measures to promote competition in International Private Leased Circuits (IPLC) in India" in December, 2005. The recommendation was accepted by the Department of Telecommunications. The licensor has also amended the relevant clauses in International Long Distance (ILD) Service Licence to ensure efficient, transparent and non-discriminatory access facilities for submarine cables at Cable Landing Stations (CLS).

The Authority felt that there is a need for standard/published access facilitation agreement, which the new service providers can make use of for availing of access to international submarine cable capacity. In the absence of such regulation, there is a scope for delay, in provisioning of access to the capacity acquired by the competing operators, from incumbent ILDO and other ILDOs with Significant Market Power (SMP) who own cable landing stations. Problems are being faced by operators, who have acquired capacity in a submarine cable system from foreign carriers or International Telecom carriers, wishing to access such capacity at the cable landing station of an existing operator. Therefore, the proposed regulation provides for:

(a) New operators have access to the capacity in the same way as the consortium members;

(b) Activated capacity is not unduly delayed by consortium members having control over CLS;

(c) Charges are transparent and non-discriminatory to both consortium members and non-members;

(d) Restoration and maintenance services;

(e) Well defined responsibilities in terms of functioning;

(f) Transparent charges for Access, Co-location and Landing Facility;

(g) Time limit for provision of Access, Co-location and Landing Facility.

International leased circuits are used by exporters, BPO units/ Call centers, banks, small and medium enterprises (SMEs), ISPs and other nformation technology enabled service providers. In addition, ILDOs also require international bandwidth connectivity for carrying international voice calls. The proposed regulation would enable:

• bandwidth to end consumers at competitive rates;

• strong competition and therefore reduction in the price of international private leased circuits (IPLCs);

• International bandwidth at competitive price to ISPs for rapid growth of Broadband Service;

• opportunity to ILDOs to get International bandwidth at competitive prices on a range of diversified submarine cables;

Source: TRAI, India

OTTAWA, April 4, 2007 — The Competition Bureau says that it is ready to do its part to promote and safeguard competition in the deregulated local telecommunications sector. The Government of Canada announced earlier today that it will move ahead to accelerate deregulation of local phone services.

"The Competition Bureau has telecommunications as one of its top priorities," said Commissioner of Competition Sheridan Scott. "We will take action in a timely and effective manner if there is evidence of abuse of a dominant position."

Over the past year, the Bureau has met with a cross-section of telecommunications industry participants in order to stay on top of the changes in technology that are driving this industry and the competitive challenges that they face. The Bureau is also working closely with the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) on an ongoing basis to share expertise. The provision of an additional $10.5 million to the Bureau's budget over five years will enable it to strengthen its ability to respond quickly and effectively to any complaints about anti-competitive behaviour in newly deregulated telecommunications markets.

The Bureau investigates alleged abuse of dominance in most sectors of the economy. It publishes guidelines on its enforcement approach and is finalizing an enforcement bulletin on abuse of dominance in telecommunications which it expects to release by the end of June 2007. The bulletin will allow the Bureau to provide guidance and educate the industry when compliance issues might arise.

The Competition Bureau supports efforts to place greater reliance on market forces. It is an independent law enforcement agency that promotes and maintains fair competition so that all Canadians can benefit from competitive prices, product choice and quality services. It oversees the application of the Competition Act, the Consumer Packaging and Labelling Act, the Textile Labelling Act and the Precious Metals Marking Act.

Source: Industry Canada, Canada

The companies of the Portugal Telecom Group may provide retail offers that bundle access and telephone traffic insofar as they request that SLRO - subscriber line resale offer - beneficiaries provide billing and collection data for all services rendered, by companies of the PT Group, or by other companies where the services are billed and charged by companies of the PT Group, on accesses with an activated SLRO. ANACOM must also be made aware of such data. According to the decision of the regulatory authority, the price for this billing and collection activity shall be set at 3,75 cents per call, or above, in the case of time-based services; and 3% of the invoice value, in all other cases, a minimum value of 3,74 cents being due for each invoiced item.
 
The SLRO Reference Proposal must be amended according to the determination of ANACOM dated 15 March, on the conditions for the inclusion of ISDN accesses in the proposal.
 
In the issued decision, ANACOM laid down also that the PT Group must also comply with applicable obligations, especially cost-orientation of prices, non-discrimination and transparency, in the scope of offers bundling access and traffic.
 
Companies of the PT Group must amend and publish the reference proposal within 10 working days, according to a large range of alterations set out by the regulatory authority, as regards time limits and prices, among other issues.
 
ANACOM’s decision to allow the companies of the PT Group to provide offers bundling access and traffic arose from the fact that all requirements imposed by the regulatory authority had been met, namely the provision of basic and primary ISDN accesses in the SLRO, which was subject to a decision issued by ANACOM on 15 March. One of the other requirements was that the companies of the PT Group requested of SLRO beneficiary entities that they undertook billing and collection activities for all services rendered, by companies of the PT Group, or by other companies where the services were billed and charged by companies of the PT Group, all issues concerning the price of these services having been dealt with; the third requirement was the effective and efficient provision of the SLRO. In this regard, the regulatory authority considered that the requirement would be met where 150 thousand SLRO accesses had been activated, excluding activations of the PT Group, and by end February, 157 124 SLRO accesses had been activated.
 
The fact that the SLRO has been effectively and efficiently provided does not mean that the offer should not be progressively improved, taking into account market evolution and dynamics, experience gained and end-users needs.
 
The existence of a fully functioning Subscriber Line Resale Offer (SLRO) was crucial for the provision by PT of an offer bundling traffic and signature.
 
In fact, the SLRO enables competitors of the incumbent operator to develop their own retail offers, which an added value for end customers who may enjoy innovative services. New operators may compete with the offers provided by PT, as they are able to provide diversified services that bundle access and telephone traffic.
 
The regulatory authority intended to ensure this replicability of offers before granting PT the permission to provide bundled offers, as it is now ensured that all operators may compete under the same conditions.

Source: ANACOM, Portugal

OTTAWA-GATINEAU — The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) today announced its decision to deregulate residential telephone services in Fort McMurray, Alberta, once the local phone company, TELUS, demonstrates that is has provided competitors with fair access to its network.

“This decision reflects our commitment to act quickly to bring the benefits of competition to Canadians,” said Konrad von Finckenstein, Chairman of the CRTC. “In recent years, Fort McMurray has experienced a high rate of economic growth due to the development of oil sands projects, and the Commission has found evidence of strong competition in the residential local services market. Our decision ensures that consumers in Fort McMurray will be able to enjoy the benefits of competition, including greater choice and lower prices, as soon as TELUS demonstrates that it has provided competitors with fair access to its networks.”

The Commission set out its criteria for the deregulation of local telephone services in Forbearance from the regulation of retail local exchange services (Telecom Decision CRTC 2006-15, 6 April 2006). Among the criteria were the stipulations that the incumbent local telephone company must have lost 25 per cent of its market share in a given market and have provided competitors with fair access to its networks by meeting specified quality of service indicators for a six-month period.

Source: CRTC, Canada

The Saudi government has introduced new legislation designed to boost investment in the telecoms sector. All new wireline licensees will be required to offer at least 25% of their shares to the public, while cellular licensees must float at least 40%, Gulf News reports. The government has also lowered the fees levied on fixed and mobile services from 15% to 10%.

Source: Telegeography

The three-day meeting (5-7 February) will bring together Heads of national regulatory authorities from both developed and developing countries to achieve consensus on the best ways to address the challenges brought about by the migration to NGN networks. 60 heads of regulatory authorities, together with 50 of their commissioners and board members are slated to attend. By 2008, at least 50% of all international telecommunication traffic is expected to be carried on IP networks. IP provides a common language in which different networks (for instance fixed and mobile; local and wide-area) can communicate together. Thus, IP is the touchstone for convergence and a common platform for NGN, while network capacity increases every month. In order to remain strategically competitive in an increasingly converged world of services and content where voice is no longer the sole source of revenue, operators and carriers are migrating from circuit-switched to Internet-Protocol (IP) networks and from there to Next-Generation Networks or NGN, which allow for decoupling the network’s transport and service layers. NGN networks promise to offer full and true convergence of fixed and mobile, voice and data, data and video and IT, telecoms and broadcast sectors. This means that the choice of technology used for infrastructure will no longer have an impact on the kinds and variety of services delivered over that infrastructure. The deployment of NGN networks will also offer ubiquitous access for users of these networks as well as for competing service providers. This shift, while taking place gradually, is already happening in several parts of the world. NGN presents many opportunities but also many complexities and challenges and requires new regulatory thinking to promote investment and ensure that carriers can remain competitive in this new environment while ensuring open access. For more information see: http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/treg/Events/Seminars/GSR/GSR07/

The Italian government is expected to offer WiMAX wireless broadband licences by mid-2007, with interest already coming from ISPs such as FastWeb and Tiscali. Reuters reports that the sale could generate proceeds of up to EUR200 million. Broadband internet providers Tiscali and FastWeb have both conducted trials of WiMAX technology, which they would deploy alongside their existing fixed networks, while Telecom Italia is also likely to be among the bidders for WiMAX concessions.

Source: Telegeography

ANACOM - National Communications Authority wants PT Comunicações to amend the RUO - Reference Unbundling Offer, in order to improve conditions for operator collocation in its exchanges - a key instrument to enable operators to cover a significant part of the population -, as the Authority considers that PT may not reject applications from other operators alleging energy or space constrains. With this ruling, the regulator carries on its intervention in the scope of the local loop unbundling, which is deemed essential, given the current market structure, to the improvement of competitive conditions of operators and service providers, namely as regards retail broadband access offers.
 
Interventions which have taken place - concerning prices, operation conditions or contractual conditions - have contributed towards improving provision conditions and increasing the confidence of market participants. This improvement can be seen by the number of loops unbundled by alternative operators in the course of the third quarter of this year, which reached 172 thousand accesses, a further 18% than the previous quarter and a further 139% than the end of 2005.
 
This competition increase, supported on the improvement of regulatory conditions ensured by ICP-ANACOM, has led to a higher diversification of retail provisions and services, with favourable conditions to end users. In fact, offers at increasingly higher speeds and competitive prices have been launched, contributing towards the development of the Information Society.
 
The improvement of regulatory conditions has led not only to the increase of unbundled loops, but also to the increase of the number of alternative operators interested in this provision and of the number of exchanges with collocated operators, which reached 190 in the third quarter of 2006, against 142, twelve months earlier.

Source: ANACOM, Portugal

UK watchdog Ofcom has warned incumbent fixed line operator BT Group that it must make more effort to encourage competition in the broadband and telephony markets. The regulator is particularly concerned that BT’s wholesale arm, Openreach, is not treating the retail businesses of its rivals as equally as promised. While concluding that BT was committed to its undertakings, it highlighted how the company's own data suggests that its rivals ‘often get a different service level to BT itself, [although] the service is not systematically better or worse’. It added that Openreach’s service performance over the past year ‘has at times been poor, and promised improvements have not always been fully delivered, or maintained’. Ofcom made the recommendations in its first annual review of BT since it gave the telco new competition guidelines a year ago. BT agreed to the undertakings to avoid an investigation by competition authorities that could have led to its break up.

Source: Telegeography

Telecom New Zealand says it is being realistic about potential losses of market share in the wake of regulatory changes which force it to offer its local loop networks to competitors. Dow Jones quotes Telecom’s chief financial officer Marko Bogoievski, who says: ‘Competition has always been the thing you've got to keep an eye on. We're acutely aware of other competitors' capabilities.’ Vodafone, Telecom’s sole rival in the country’s cellular market, has recently announced plans to enter the fixed line sector with its introduction of converged fixed-mobile options and it is also offering cellular data packages which are aimed at winning over Telecom’s wireline internet users. Bogoievski says the UK-owned firm is a ‘formidable’ competitor and the threat of competition should be taken seriously. He did not give details of how much market share Telecom is expecting to lose.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has ruled that fixed line incumbent Telstra must continue to limit the unbundled local loop (ULL) prices it charges competitors for using its PSTN, starting on 1 August, for a further three years. ACCC chairman Graeme Samuel said that maintaining regulation of ULL services would promote competition, but added that pricing issues surrounding ULL remained contentious and the ACCC would therefore not be releasing pricing guidelines immediately. The ACCC said pricing caps will also be extended to line rental charges, prompting Telstra spokesperson Liz Jurman to claim ‘the regulator is stuck in a timewarp,’ according to the Financial Times. The decision has heightened tensions between the incumbent and regulator, which have been long involved in a bitter exchange over how Telstra will provide rivals with access to its planned AUD3.1 billion (USD2.4 billion) next generation network. Telstra releases its annual results on 10 August, after which the government will decide whether to sell its remaining 51.8% in the company. The question of network access will have a major bearing on Telstra’s future, including affecting its sale value. Source: Telegeography

An administrative court has rejected an appeal by TeliaSonera against an earlier ruling from the Swedish Post and Telecom agency (PTS) that ordered the telco to offer wholesale bitstream internet access. TeliaSonera opposed the PTS requirement claiming it was 'unreasonable' to force it to invest in another regulated copper-line-based internet product for the benefit of competitors. However, the court disagreed, siding instead with the regulator. Following the decision, TeliaSonera has indicated that it will make the service available to other operators by the end of July 2006.

Source: TeleGeography.

New Zealand’s competition regulator says the country’s dominant phone operator Telecom NZ must grant two competitors improved access to its broadband networks. The Commerce Commission has ruled that rival firms ihug and CallPlus should be offered wholesale access to products with the highest available downstream data speeds at a price of NZD28.04 per month. The head of the Commission, Douglas Webb, said: “ihug and CallPlus will be able to expand their retail service offerings by providing higher speed broadband.” Meanwhile, some shareholders are calling for Telecom’s CEO Theresa Gattung to step down as the firm’s share price hit a 13-year low. Telecom’s shares have dropped by 25% since the government ruled last month that it must open up its local telephone networks to competitors. Source: TeleGeography.

The National Communications Commission (NCC) is set to implement a new policy that will remove the monopoly held by Chunghwa Telecom on ‘last-mile’ connections in Taiwan, according to industry sources. Under the new policy, Chunghwa will be required to lease its subscriber line networks to competitors at reasonable rates. As it stands, Chunghwa’s LLU pricing is high, with the result that alternative operators have leased fewer than 100 circuits. In order to improve the situation, NCC is expected to require Chunghwa to open up its fixed line subscriber lines in Taiwan’s principal metropolitan areas of Taipei, Taichung and Kaohsiung this year, with the remaining part of western Taiwan to follow in 2007, and the rest of the country in 2008. Source: TeleGeography