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Swisscom ordered to offer bitstream access for 4 years (Switzerland)

  • November 23rd, 2007
  • 2:54 pm

The Swiss Federal Communications Commission (ComCom) is obliging Swisscom to provide bitstream access on the last mile for 4 years following the parliamentary recommendation. Swisscom must submit an offer with cost-based prices to rivals, as it is dominant in the market for this access variant. In 2006, the parliament decided that Swisscom had to be forced to open its last mile to its competitors via full unbundling and wholesale bitstream access, but in March of this year Swisscom declined to submit a price proposal to its competitors, because in its view it was not dominant in the market. This drove TDC subsidiary and Swiss telecommunications operator sunrise to submit an access application to ComCom, with a view to obtaining a decision in principle on the question of market dominance. ComCom came to the conclusion that Swisscom is market-dominant in relation to wholesale bitstream access. ComCom based its decision on a report which the Swiss competition commission Weko produced in the course of the procedure. Appeals against this decision of ComCom can be submitted to the Federal Administrative Court.

Swisscom takes a different view: there is active infrastructure competition and Swisscom cannot act independently on the reseller market. Swisscom does not consider itself to have a dominant position on the broadband services market. For this reason it has not provided regulated bit-stream offers to its competitors to date. Swisscom will examine the ruling in detail and decide what steps to take next.

   

Commission wants mobile roaming regulation

  • August 7th, 2007
  • 2:42 pm

New Zealand’s Commerce Commission (ComCom) says greater regulation is needed in the country’s mobile market to increase competition. In a draft recommendation on mobile roaming and co-location services the commission said that it would not accept an undertaking from Vodafone, the country’s largest cellular operator in terms of subscribers, under which the cellco has proposed setting its own price controls as an alternative to regulation. ComCom has recommended that non-price terms of the national roaming service should become subject to price regulation, The New Zealand Herald reports. ‘The recommendation to amend the roaming service in the Act is likely to facilitate new entry, which will lead to more competition, greater choice of provider, lower prices and more innovative products and services,’ Telecommunications Commissioner Ross Patterson said.

   

 

 

 

 

ComCom publishes draft LLU rates

  • July 31st, 2007
  • 3:17 pm

New Zealand’s Commerce Commission (ComCom) has published a draft proposal for the prices at which Telecom New Zealand must make its local loop infrastructure available to rivals. The monthly rental charge for unbundled local loops in urban areas has been set at NZD16.49 (USD12.56), while in rural areas the charge is NZD32.20. The one-off cost of transferring a customer has been given as NZD83.70. The draft determination is open to comments until 29 August, with a final ruling set to be made in November. Telecom is due to begin offering unbundled local connections in early 2008, with a progressive rollout of the service across much of the country.