Total Pageviews

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Analyzing the Lithuanian situation: letter now out

It seems clear that the Lithuanians have followed the market situation - its all about fibre, not LLU. Outside the big cities TEO has a monopoly, inside them an interesting dynamic is developing where TEO has 98% of FTTH (26,000 lines installed in the past 12 months) but altcos have the FTTB. The regulator has seen what's coming, allowed TEO a local monopoly outside the cities subject to price control, and allowed the altcos not to unbundle FTTB:
"In order to foster investment in Next Generation Access Networks (NGA) and the appearance of new operators in the market, RRT proposes to exempt FTTH lines from regulation and to impose only those obligations which will, according to RRT, create favourable conditions for the development of NGA. RRT therefore proposes to impose the following remedies related to access to passive infrastructure, i.e. access to ducts and dark fibre (backhaul fibre)".
But the EC won't let them get away with either - one of the major problems of one-size-fits-all telecoms policy. Its inevitable but unfortunate. Otherwise, France Telecom would argue the same against ARCEP, in a market with 400,000 high-speed subscribers mixed between cable and fibre.
If I was advising the Liths, I'd tell them to let it go all the way to the ECJ to buy some time for their artful compromise, then subside gently. Oh, and enjoy the Internet Governance Forum in September (sorry about the British stag parties, boys will be boys...)
P.S. The UK regulator has decided above 24Mbps is 'super-fast' as that means HFC or VDSL - and proposes to allow duct access for third parties. See ARCEP above for how its done...
UPDATE: The Lithuanians realized they were onto a hiding and withdrew their definitions.

No comments: