Consultation of draft market analysis decision regarding fixed and mobile call termination
The Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) has analyzed the call termination market (call termination is the facilitation of the establishment of a phone connection). In this draft decision, ACM has established that part of the existing regulatory regime must be continued. ACM is concerned that market participants that have both a fixed and a mobile network could abuse their positions in specific situations by charging high tariffs. That is why certain conditions will remain in place for the three largest telecom operators: KPN, Odido, and VodafoneZiggo.
What is call termination?
In order to establish a phone call, the networks of different telecom operators must be linked. When this link has been established, the caller’s operator delivers the call to the called person’s network on the other end of the line. The link between one network with the other is called ‘interconnection’. The caller’s operator pays the called person’s operator a fee for the call termination. The tariffs for this have been set by the European Commission. These tariffs are also called ‘Eurorates’.
What does the draft decision say?
In the draft market analysis decision regarding fixed and mobile call termination, ACM says that there is a risk of significant market power. In addition, potential anticompetitive concerns have been identified with regard to the providers of call termination that have both a fixed and a mobile telecom network, which are KPN, Odido, and VodafoneZiggo. That is why ACM sees reason to keep in place the existing access and transparency obligations on these call termination providers. As KPN is the only provider that offers the call termination service with associated facilities that must be taken out with KPN (such as co-location facilities and the provided Ethernet services), the existing tariff obligation for this will remain in place for KPN. For all other providers, the obligations will be withdrawn.
Procedure for drawing up the draft decision
The draft decision will be drawn up using the uniform public preparatory procedure (General Administrative Law Act, section 3.4). Interested parties have until 8 April 2024 to submit their opinions. During this period, the draft decision will be available for perusal at ACM’s offices. If you wish to have access to the draft decision, please contact ACM by sending an email to %20FTA-MTA-6 [at] acm [punt] nl (FTA-MTA-6[at]acm[dot]nl).
Written opinions can be submitted both per email and per regular mail. When doing so, please include the reference “Draft market analysis decision regarding fixed and mobile call termination”. ACM’s postal address is: The Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM), TVP Department, P.O. Box 16326, 2500 BH, The Hague, the Netherlands. The email address is FTA-MTA-6 [at] acm [punt] nl .
When submitting an opinion, please indicate whether your opinion contains any confidential information, and if so, please indicate, supported with reasons, what parts of the opinion are confidential. If you believe your opinion contains confidential information, you must submit both a confidential and a public version.