BNetzA has published the draft review of the fixed wholesale broadband markets.
Background: The German Federal Network Agency, BNetzA, finalised its latest reviews of the wholesale broadband access markets in 2015. Back then, Market 3a (wholesale local access, i.e. physical infrastructure) and market 3b (bitstream access) were analysed separately. Local loop unbundling was regulated, whereas no fibre unbundling remedies were imposed. Bitstream access was partially deregulated at Layer-III, whereas Layer-II (including VULA) remained subject to ex-ante regulation.
A new review: This week, BNetzA has released a draft of its next review of Market 3a. It finds that copper, fibre, and cable are all part of the same relevant market, and locally provided Layer-II bitstream products are also included. However, competitive conditions differ between copper and fibre, which means fibre regulation could be kept to “the absolute minimum” in order to foster private investment, in line with the requirements of the industry. In particular, the review would look to guarantee that non-discrimination obligations are part of the access remedies. Deutsche Telekom would still be the operator with Significant Market Power (SMP). BNetzA considers that the recent growth of cable operators is not sufficient to undermine DT’s dominance, and this would not change if the proposed merger of Vodafone and Liberty Global were to be approved.
Next steps: BNetzA will now receive feedback on the draft, which remains open for comment until 1 July 2019.
