The European Commission is taking a closer look at a network-sharing agreement between the two largest Czech mobile telephony operators, O2 CZ/CETIN and T-Mobile CZ. An in-depth investigation, which it opened on Tuesday 25 October, will seek to determine whether the cooperation limits competition and harms innovation, in breach of the EU rules on cartels.
The Commission states that between them, these operators represent around three quarters of the retail mobile telecommunications market in the Czech Republic. The network-sharing cooperation began in 2011 and its scale has steadily increased since then. Today, it covers all generations of mobile technologies (2G, 3G, 4G) and the entire territory of the Czech Republic, with the exception of Prague and Brno, or around 85% of the population.
The Commission received a complaint about this cooperation and will now investigate to determine whether it could hinder improvements to the quality of the existing infrastructure and delay or block the deployment of new technologies and new services based on them, particularly in densely populated areas. The Commission will also examine the impact of the potential performance benefits that the network-sharing may bring about. (Original version in French by Élodie Lamer)