Luxembourg, 18/06/2007 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday 14 June, the Court of First Instance ruled (opinion C-64/06) that the Czech national telecommunications regulator (NTR) could require a company which had significant power on the telecommunications market, in this instance the historic operator, to conclude a contract for the interconnection of its network with those of a smaller competitor.
Since 2001, Telefónica 02 Czech Republic a.s. (formerly Èeský Telecom), the historic and dominant telecommunications services operator in the Czech Republic, and Czech On Line a.s., a more recent competitor, have had an agreement on the interconnection of their fixed telecommunications networks. In 2003, however, Telefónica rejected Czech On Line's request to extend this interconnection agreement to broadband high-speed internet services.
Czech On Line referred the matter to the Èeský telekomunikaèní úøad (the Czech NTR) using the national law which transposes directive 2002/19/EC on access to electronic telecommunications networks and associated resources. However, Article 37 of Law No 151/2000 on telecommunications and amendment of other legislation (Zákon è. 151/2000 Sb. O telekomunikacích) ('Law No 151/2000') provides: “The operators of public telephone networks and the suppliers of telecommunications services by means of the leasing of telecommunications circuits which have significant power in the market concerned are obliged to satisfy all requests from authorised suppliers of telecommunications services for access to the network operated by them”.
The Czech authority upheld Czech On Line's request. Telefónica lodged an appeal with the Obvodní soud pro Prahu (the Prague Court of Appeal), which asked the Court of First Instance of the European Court whether, by virtue of Community law, an NTR can require an operator to open up its network to a competitor in this case. The Court ruled that, notwithstanding the fact that Czech On Line's initial request was made before the Czech Republic's accession to the EU (on 1 May 2004), the national regulator did indeed have such a right.
If Telefónica does not appeal against this ruling, the matter will be sent back to the Czech court. In any case, a decision requiring the historic operator to open its network to interconnection with Czech On Line would appear to be inevitable. (cd)