The Spanish regulator CNMC has fined Telefónica €3 million for failing to comply with its obligations regarding access to its infrastructures.
In a statement, it says that as it has “verified that, between September 2019 and September 2020, Telefónica unjustifiably rejected and delayed 41 requests for shared use (SUC) to the MARCo offer made by six alternative operators to provide services to end business customers or proceed with fiber laying optical authorized according to said offer.
“As a result of Telefónica’s conduct, alternative operators were deprived of the possibility of offering services to their customers under equal conditions”.
CNMC concludes by saying that “this behaviour is particularly serious, as it affects the physical infrastructure, an element that is essential for operators to be able to carry out the transition to new generation access networks. Access to Telefónica’s ducts and poles allows third-party operators to differentiate themselves from said agent as much as possible, by being able to carry out the provision of electronic communications services on the basis of their own completely independent network. The possibility of competing with Telefónica using the same resources is essential in the business segment, where Telefónica’s position is especially important”.