The Netherlands Authority for Consumers & Markets (ACM) wants alternative providers to have access to VodafoneZiggo’s cable network.
As a result, they will be able to offer broadband, television and fixed telephony services over the cable network as well (next to KPN’s copper and fibre-optic networks, which ACM will keep regulating). This was announced by ACM in its draft decision concerning the market analysis for Wholesale Fixed Access (WFA).
Shortly after the market analysis decision on unbundled access came into force on January 1, 2016, Vodafone and Ziggo launched a joint venture. As a result, there are now two market participants with their own fixed and mobile networks active on the Dutch market, namely KPN and VodafoneZiggo. This means that KPN and VodafoneZiggo have comparable positions on the telecom market. That is why ACM, sooner than initially expected, decided to conduct a new market analysis.
In this market analysis, ACM has established that, without regulation, KPN and VodafoneZiggo would have collective Significant Market Power (SMP) on the market for fixed networks. That would enable them to foreclose alternative providers collectively, and to charge end-users high retail prices.
Henk Don, Member of the Board of ACM, explains: “As a result of KPN’s and VodafoneZiggo’s dominant positions on the market for fixed telecom networks, there would be insufficient competition if regulation were absent. That is why ACM proposes to regulate both market participants. That is how ACM ensures that, for the next few years, market participants without fixed networks of their own are able to use the networks of KPN and VodafoneZiggo.”
Stakeholders have six weeks (starting Tuesday, February 27) to submit their opinions about the market analysis. ACM will subsequently submit a revised draft decision to the European Commission. ACM aims for the decision to come into force in the summer of 2018.
