The unbundling or access to the local loop on fair terms was
required by a Council Regulation of December 2000. The Commission
is now calling upon the EU Member States, national competition and
regulatory authorities and dominant players to “play their part to
ensure that the objectives of unbundling are met.”
In the meantime, the Commission, which has already launched
infringement proceedings against some Member States in December,
may take action against those companies which abuse their dominant
position.
The report concludes that the new entrants seeking to rent
copper lines from incumbents to deploy their own services (in
particular broadband services) to end-users are confronted with two
sets of problems: tariff and cost related problems inherent to the
unsatisfactory economic conditions of unbundling throughout Europe;
and behavioural problems, reflecting the reluctance of telecom
incumbents to open their premises and facilities to their
competitors.
Especiallly contentious appear to be the conditions of
collocation and the related facilities. Collocation basically
consists of the rental of space (each new entrant needs around 10
square meters to install its equipment) in the local exchanges of
the incumbent and the right for the staff of new entrants to access
the incumbent's buildings. New entrants blame high rental fees, the
necessity to build separate rooms to accommodate their equipment
and high fees for escorted access to the incumbents' premises.
The combination of expensive collocation conditions and high
one-off fees (for activation/ deactivation of unbundled lines) has
a clear economic translation and has led a number of operators to
turn away from the market or leave aside the residential segment
altogether. Many new entrants also allege that they are confronted
with price squeezes. The problems reported by new entrants reflect
possible infringements of competition law.
