Move To End Deutsche Telekom's Dominance Of German Broadband Market Approved

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

23 August 2006

In a letter sent on Monday to the German telecoms regulator Bundesnetzagentur, the European Commission has endorsed a regulatory measure proposed by BNetzA that will give new market entrants high-speed access to end-customers (or bitstream access) via the broadband networks of Deutsche Telekom.

This measure is meant to remedy the position of dominance of Deutsche Telekom on the German broadband market, already identified by BNetzA in December 2005 in agreement with the Commission. The Commission welcomes in particular that the remedy proposed now requires bitstream access regardless of the technology used by Deutsche Telekom (ADSL2, ADSL2+, SDSL and VDSL).

In its comments, the Commission asked the German regulator to ensure that the remedy is applied without further delay, in line with EU law, and that final clarifications are made in the interest of legal certainty on the German broadband market.

“I welcome that in spite of considerable political pressure, the German regulator has proved its independence by proposing to the Commission, as required by EU law, to remedy the well-known competition problems on the German broadband market," commented Information Society and Media Commissioner Viviane Reding.

She continued:

“To open the German broadband market to competition will lead to better services and lower internet access prices for consumers. I however note that time is a crucial factor. While bitstream access has already been available to new market entrants in the vast majority of EU Member States for a number of years, it has taken the German regulator more than three years since the entry into force of the EU telecom rules and more than eight months since the finding of dominance of Deutsche Telekom to take the required measures."

"I therefore urge the German regulator to implement this remedy now without any further delay to ensure that both competitors and consumers can profit from fairer competition also in Germany.”

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