Brussels, 23/03/2010 (Agence Europe) - The Lithuanian telecommunications authority, RRT, has informed the European Commission that it has decided to withdraw its proposed measures on network infrastructure access markets. These access services are used by alternative operators to connect their customers to telecoms services like telephone and internet. In early March this year, the Commission had raised serious doubts about the compatibility of the proposed regulation with the principles of EU competition law and EU telecom rules, and had launched a two-month investigation. In a press release of Tuesday 23 March, Commissioner Neelie Kroes, responsible for digital strategy, said: “We will work together with RRT to resolve this matter so that it does not restrict competition on the telecoms market or penalise Lithuanian consumers”.
On 11 January, the Lithuanian telecoms regulator had notified the Commission of its plans to regulate the market for unbundled access to local lines, i.e. the “last mile” of a telecoms network before reaching the customer. Technically, the line connecting a specific consumer can be separated from the other lines (the “bundle”) traditionally owned by the incumbent and can be used by alternative operators to provide broadband and fixed telephone services to that customer. RRT had identified differences between unbundled access provided through copper lines and optical fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) local lines and had defined separate copper and FTTH access markets. In addition, RRT had proposed excluding unbundled access through fibre-to-the-building (FFTB) lines from both markets. The Commission is concerned that the market definition proposed by RRT was not in line with the principles of competition law and EU telecoms rules and called for further market clarifications and data from RRT and market players. Further to the Commission's comments, the Lithuanian telecoms regulator has now withdrawn its measure and has pledged to review its findings and notify its revised measure to the Commission at a later stage. (I.L./transl.jl)