EU to rule on German web access

bealtine

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/5270492.stm


Last Updated: Monday, 21 August 2006, 10:23 GMT 11:23 UK

EU to rule on German web access

Deutsche Telekom has locked horns with Brussels over proposals to force it to open up a 3bn euro (£2bn) high-speed internet network to its competitors.

The European Commission is expected to back plans by Germany's own telecoms regulator to address what it sees as Deutsche Telekom's market dominance.

Deutsche Telekom insists that with new products like internet TV the service should not be forced to open up.

It wants to offer TV, internet and phone links via a single connection.

One-stop shop

The German company has threatened to cease development of the service if it is subject to official regulation.

The prospect of offering consumers different media via a single connection lies at the heart of the network.

It is based on a system known as VDSL, which can carry far more content than existing networks.

Deutsche Telekom has teamed up with Microsoft to provide Internet Protocol TV (IPTV) in German cities.

IPTV services have emerged in the UK, France and Italy.

The new network is six times faster than existing services and is already installed in 10 German cities.

Deutsche Telekom hopes to extend it to 40 more cities by 2008.

Deutsche Telekom has German government support for its stand.

1huge1

sounds like something eircom would say

Sponge Bob

Its exactly what Eircom WILL say and their poodle Dempsey will say it for them too

It is interesting however, the principle is that if an incumbent makes a stonkingly large investment committment (eircom will never do that because they are teetering on the edge of bankruptcy) then are they entiitled to exclusivity on that new network for a period...and for how long and why ?

bealtine

EC endorses German regulator's bitstream access decision
Published: Monday 21 August 2006 | 02:26 PM CET


The European Commission has endorsed a decision of German telecommunications regulator BNetzA to give new market entrants high-speed access to end-users (bitstream access) via Deutsche Telekom's broadband networks. The Commission welcomed the regulator's proposal to require bistream access regardless of Deutsche Telekom's technology (ADSL2, ADSL2+, SDSL and VDSL). BnetzA found back in December 2005 that Deutsche Telekom had significant power in wholesale broadband access. Information Society and Media Commissioner Viviane Reding urged the body to implement the remedy without further delay. In its letter to BNetzA, the Commission also calls for stand-alone bitstream access (the provision of broadband access independent of the obligation to buy a telephone connection from Deutsche Telekom) to be imposed in the near future.

Sponge Bob

cue moaning from Eircom about how this ruins 'plans' they never had anyway because they have no money to pay for them.

bealtine

Sponge Bob wrote:

cue moaning from Eircom about how this ruins 'plans' they never had anyway because they have no money to pay for them.

It also clearly shows that broadband is within the scope of "significant market power" according to the EC and the German regulators.
One must only wonder why Comreg can't come to similar conclusions...

Sponge Bob

they may conclude but they will not regulate given the conclusion.

look at functional internet acccess.

once Eircom was designated as the Universal Carrier in 2003 by EU Regulation they were obliged to provide each household with at least one analogue line capable of "Functional Internet Access"

Comreg then defined "Functional Internet Access" as speeds of 0k .

This meant they did not have to regulate because they defined the problem in such a way that they did not have to regulate.

For Bitstream access they would theoretically oblige eircom to yadda yadda yadda Bitstream and Comreg would then see a Cow on the Line and would blame the Cow and the Agricultural Regulator who did not see the significant market distortion caused by the Bovine as an issue

Its because of this institutionalised uselessness that Comreg need to be abolished .

The threat of creating a proper regulator by statute would make eircom behave better overall than the actual existance of a regulator and thats a tribute to how utterly totally useless Comreg are.

bealtine

Sponge Bob wrote:

Its because of this institutionalised uselessness that Comreg need to be abolished .

The threat of creating a proper regulator by statute would make eircom behave better overall than the actual existance of a regulator and thats a tribute to how utterly totally useless Comreg are.

Sadly that's the only reasonable conclusion that can be drawn.
Flying pigeons, FIA, licence fiascos, so called reasonable installation fees, highest line rental/lowest service, no minimum standards, no protection for the consumer the list goes on...

I too would agree that Comreg are the most useless regulator in the EU (and elsewhere) and something urgent needs to be done. However Comreg suits the current political system, as merely a shield for government to hide behind and wring their hands and *pretend* to be all concerned.

So nothing will get done in the foreseeable...perhaps a change of government *might* bring some change?

eircomtribunal

Achtung! Regulators Force DT to Share

Good article on the DT ruling is here.
P.

eircomtribunal

Dave Burstein has a small comment and the full text of Redding's statement on his DSL prime newsletter:

"Deutsche Telekom won't be allowed a monopoly on their VDSL network. Conservative EU Commissioner Viviane Redding and Social Democrat German regulator Matthias Kurth strongly agree. “To open the German broadband market to competition will lead to better services and lower internet access prices for consumers.” Mike Powell made the opposite decision, and SBC slammed him by killing their fiber home efforts soon after they won that decision. The EU decision is only a symbol until we get the details, but I’ve included Redding’s comments in full at the end."

Viviane Redding EU:
Brussels, 21 August 2006
Commission gives green light for access of new market entrants to Deutsche Telekom’s broadband networks
In a letter sent today to the German telecom regulator Bundesnetzagentur (“BNetzA”), the Commission endorses, with comments, 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, identified by BNetzA already in December 2005 in agreement with the Commission (see IP/05/1708 ). 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 asks 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. “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.”
On 21 July 2006, the German telecom regulator BNetzA notified to the Commission measures to remedy the dominant position of Deutsche Telekom on the German broadband market. Already in December 2005, BNetzA had found that Deutsche Telekom holds a position of significant market power on the German wholesale broadband access market. The Commission agreed with this analysis, after it had been amended to include also, in principle, the new VDSL-infrastructure of Deutsche Telekom*** The remedy proposed by BNetzA on 21 July and endorsed today by the Commission will require Deutsche Telekom to open its broadband networks to competitors by allowing them to purchase a high speed access link to the customer premises from Deutsche Telekom with transmission capacity for broadband data in both direction, thus enabling new entrants to offer their own, value-added services to end users. The price for such bitstream access needs to be approved in advance by BNetzA.
Under the remedy endorsed by the Commission today, bitstream access will need to be granted by Deutsche Telekom also to its new VDSL infrastructure currently built in several German cities. In its letter with comments under Article 7 of the EU Framework Directive for electronic communications, the Commission makes clear that this access obligation should apply when this new infrastructure is in place. The Commission notes that at present, there is no indication of a lack of substitution between VDSL-based access and other bistream products, and recalls that a mere upgrade of an existing service (such as an offering with a higher bandwidth) is not considered in itself to lead to new products or services. In any event, a finding of non-substitutability of a particular product or service by BNetzA and consequently an exclusion of a certain product from the remedies imposed would require an amendment of the market analysis and the remedy in force and thus would need to be notified again to the Commission.
In its further comments in the letter sent today, the Commission asks the German regulator to ensure that the remedy is applied without further delay; that also stand-alone bitstream access (the provision of broadband access independent of the obligation to buy a telephone connection from Deutsche Telekom) should be imposed in the near future; and that access prices should prevent any margin squeeze and should therefore be sufficiently below Deutsche Telekom’s retail prices or, alternatively, be calculated efficiently by the regulator on the basis of actual costs, as provided in EU law. The Commission finally urges the German regulator to notify without further delay also remedies regarding ATM bitstream access, which is crucial for effective competition in broadband services for business clients. BNetzA found Deutsche Telekom to hold dominance also on the market for wholesale ATM bitstream access in December 2005. However, so far, no remedies were notified to the Commission in this respect by BNetzA.

P.

Wolverine_1999

I fully agree with Deutsche Telekom's stance and would also deny access to a network if it was entirely funded by my own company. Eircom have absolutely no stance when it comes to denying access to their networks, because they are miles behind in technology compared to many other companies networks in the country. (Digiweb, Smart, NTL)..

The only company which should maybe open their high speed lines is the ESB. Using their network, it would be possible for people to receive broadband in any corner of Ireland, providing the power lines have been upgraded.

watty

1) No-one is proposing that DT would not make a profit. They don't have to giv it away.

2) Almost All the non-Eircom providers DO use ESB (fiber) for backhaul. It's nothing to do with power lines and PLT would be a seriously bad idea.

3) It is EIRCOM fiber / back haul that is inaccessible due to being overpriced. They don't want other ISPs to use it.


4) We also have the MANS, which again any ISP can use, but also like ESB fibre and fibre along the railways does not connect to users.

5) Eircom still have a virtual monopoly on copper pair connection to any end user from any of these distribution systems, hence the massive growth in Wireless based access for users, which also bypasses the madly expensive Line Rental.

So on Telecoms front we should have no complaint against ESB. They have done more to help broadband rollout than Eircom!

The only really Guilty party is government for not enforcing EU ideals properly on Eircom who have been serving their shareholders.
Viz:
* Pricing of Line rental
* LLU
* Geographic number porting
* FRAICO

Even if you have your own VOIP based network you probabily have to site you r "exchange" according to Eircom's whim and you depend on Eircom for Phone Network interconnection.

We need clear Government commitment to real teeth regulation and a "big picture view" instead of "Ah sure we have 100% coverage by satellite".