Brussels, 21/08/2013 (Agence Europe) - On 12 August, the European Commission suspended a proposal from the Portuguese telecoms regulator (ANACOM) concerning regulatory remedies for the fixed termination market.
The Commission believes in particular that the lack of a comprehensive access obligation, including for instance interconnection through an IP network - which is standard in most other member states - would not allow for a swift resolution of access problems and could prevent consumers from making calls to other networks. ANACOM's proposal could also make it possible for fixed operators to refuse or delay access to a part of their networks in an attempt to eliminate their direct competitors from the market.
Under EU telecom rules, the access obligation requires an operator to interconnect its respective network with that of any other operator. ANACOM proposes to impose this obligation for traditional ways of interconnection but not for IP interconnection. The Portuguese regulator now has three months to work with the European Commission and the Body of European Regulators of Electronic Communications (BEREC) to find a solution to this case. In the meantime, implementation of the proposal is suspended. (OL/transl.fl)