Anacom will attribute to the three national mobile operators Significant Market Power, a quality that entails compliance with a set of obligations. Among these the three players are required to make several reductions in fixed-to-mobile termination rates until 2006, in order to harmonize prices in Portugal with the rest of Europe.
Seven descents are planned until reaching a termination rate of 0.1100 euros. The measures are part of Anacom’s draft decision regarding the analysis of the wholesale mobile termination market and the associated price-fixing and control obligation.
According to a statement, this analysis, which is mandatory in the context of the new Community legislation on Electronic Communications, implied the «assessment of significant market power (SMP) and the imposition, maintenance, alteration or elimination of regulatory obligations in the wholesale market. voice call termination on individual mobile networks «.
Entities considered to have Significant Market Power, under the terms of the same legislation, are also obliged to respond to reasonable requests for access, non-discrimination in the provision of access and interconnection and in the respective provision of information and transparency in the publication of information. The first two aspects refer to the relationship between fixed and mobile operators and the second and third to the communication of financial information.
Anacom’s report explains that the obligations proposed to operators aim to enforce the objectives defined in article 5 of Law 5/2004, which call for the promotion of competition in the provision of networks and services and the absence of distortions or barriers to competition, as well as encouraging efficient investments in infrastructure.
The setting of lower termination prices is seen as an essential condition to enforce the objectives defined in the same legislation.
This analysis process has been going on since the middle of the year and started with a public consultation with the various market players, which helped the regulator to formulate a preliminary decision.
This preliminary decision is now again subject to public consultation, which will continue until next February 7, the deadline for the receipt of contributions by interested entities. After this date, a definitive decision will be issued and communicated to the European Commission, in accordance with the provisions of the new Electronic Communications legislation in force in the EU countries.
This Basic Law, recently implemented in the legal system of each country, requires local regulatory authorities to analyze all markets defined as relevant in order to establish competitive operating rules and identify entities with Significant Market Power, to whom they are imposed specific obligations.
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