The European Commission (EC) has made commitments offered by T-Mobile CZ, CETIN and O2 CZ, as well as their parent companies Deutsche Telekom and PPF Group, legally binding under EU antitrust rules.
According to the EC, the companies must ensure that their network sharing agreements do not reduce infrastructure competition which enables competition and innovation in the wholesale and retail telecommunications markets in the Czech Republic.
Commenting on the move, executive VP Margrethe Vestager, in charge of competition policy at the EC, said: “Network sharing agreements bring efficiencies, such as faster roll-out, cost savings and coverage in rural areas. But such cooperation can also dampen the incentives of mobile operators to independently improve their networks and services. The network sharing agreements between T-Mobile CZ, CETIN and O2 CZ did not strike the right balance for Czech mobile users. So today, the Commission made binding commitments offered by T-Mobile CZ, CETIN and O2 CZ that will keep the benefits of network sharing whilst removing technical and financial disincentives to unilateral deployments and limiting information exchange, all to the benefit of Czech mobile users”.
The EC notes that O2 CZ and T-Mobile CZ are major operators in the Czech retail and wholesale mobile telecommunications market. O2 CZ’s mobile infrastructure has been transferred to CETIN, a network infrastructure company belonging to the same corporate group.
