UPC appeals against Open Cable pricing

The Dutch telecoms regulator OPTA has set the wholesale prices for the Open Cable access on the UPC and Ziggo networks at €8.84 and €8.46 respectively for analogue resellers. UPC will appeal against the pricing and it is believed Ziggo will follow suit.

Following the publication of the prices, parties have until January 7, 2010 to submit their views. The regulator also submitted its prices to the European Commission. When the procedures have finished, OPTA will set the final access pricing to the two cable networks.

The prices set by OPTA are substantially lower then the proposals of the two operators. Ziggo calculated a wholesale price of €11.05, while UPC set its at around €12.00. From January 1, 2010, Ziggo charges it customers €16.45 a month for basic analogue and UPC €16.90.

Parties interested in gaining access to the analogue tiers of the cable networks include YouCa, Online, Tele 2 and Your TV. When they gain access to the networks, these companies will be able to sell hybrid triple pay packages consisting of analogue cable combined with DSL broadband access and telephony. At a later stage, the new entrants will also be able to offer their own packages on digital cable.