France Télécom Obliged To Provide Access To Broadband Network

by Ulrika Lomas, for LawAndTax-News.com, Brussels

01 August 2005

The European Commission announced last week that France Télécom will be required, for a transitional period, to provide rival market players with wholesale nationwide high-speed access to France’s telecoms network.

This regulatory measure, proposed by the French national regulatory authority for electronic communications, ARCEP, was authorised on Wednesday by the EC.

It will apply until competing network operators have built a sufficiently wide backbone network and a large enough customer base to enable them to invest further in regional high-speed services, such as access to the web and services connecting subscribers’ premises to the network (also known as the local loop).

The Commission asked ARCEP to review this market again within a year to fully take account of new market developments which could enhance competition in the wholesale nationwide broadband market in France.

“The measures authorised by the Commission today for a transitional period of one year should give market players legal certainty and confidence to invest more in regional broadband and local connection services over the next year,” Information Society and Media Commissioner Viviane Reding announced last week, continuing:

“This in turn should enhance the quality and variety of services available to consumers and accelerate the take-up of broadband connections in France."

Recommended