Commission strikes down telecoms plans

Plans by Latvia and the Czech Republic are anti-competitive, Commission says.

The European Commission today (14 August) rebuffed two separate telecoms plans by the Czech Republic and Latvia, saying they were anti-competitive.

Czech telecoms regulator ČTÚ had planned to separate the country into two separate geographic markets, one where the main Czech telecoms operator Telefónica is dominant, and one where it is not. This would have resulted, said the Commission, in Telefónica being unfairly relieve of obligations to provide access to its broadband markets to competitors in some areas.

“The current evidence does not justify the Czech Regulatory authority’s plans, but I am confident that a revised analysis could allow for geographical differentiation of remedies,” said Neelie Kroes, European commissioner for the digital agenda.

In a separate decision, the Commission suspended a Latvian proposal to maintain high wholesale rates for fixed telephony. The Latvian regulator SPRK had proposed to charge termination rates – the rates networks charge each other to deliver calls between networks – of €0.29 eurocents per call and €0.26 eurocents per minute. The same rates are much lower in other member states, €0.08 in France for example.

The Commission said this rate level is not in line with the 2009 Termination Rates Recommendation under the EU telecoms rules. The Commission has sent the SPRK a letter asking the regulator to revise its policies within three months.

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