Concluding that Portugal remains one of the European Union countries with the highest prices for access to the local loop, Anacom published on 30 March a new decision on these markets. Recommendations include some realignments, but there are measures that need more detail or clarification in implementation, as admitted by Anacom itself.
The aligned measures are directed at the PT Group, considered to be the entity with significant market power in this area, and include the areas of access and use of specific network resources, transparency in the publication of information (including reference proposals). Note also the separation of accounts and the necessary cost-oriented pricing.
It should be remembered that this market is fundamental for the development of offers from new operators in the area of ​​broadband and voice services, since they can use local loops to reach customers’ homes directly. the lack of price competitiveness may determine the impossibility for new operators to expand the number of exchanges where they are present and the direct offer to customers.
A comparative analysis of this market, relative to the month of July 2004, shows that Portugal remains among the list of countries with the lowest number of unbundled loops. In fourth place after Greece, the United Kingdom and Ireland, Portugal is very poorly classified in the picture, especially considering that the British market is experiencing a very specific situation in which the percentage of accesses by the incumbent operator (method used to calculate this index) is much less relevant than in other EU countries.
Although Anacom says that in the EU the evolution of the unbundling of accesses to the local loop is slow, countries such as the Netherlands, Finland and Germany present much more significant data – above 8, 4 and 3 percent, respectively.
Misaligned prices
The document also includes comparative data of prices practiced in the European Union in relation to the local loop, verifying that Portugal is among the group of countries with higher costs in the installation by unbundled loop (active loops) in full access regime, with values around 92.12 euros, with the European average at 66.86 euros. In this case, Portugal is surpassed only by Ireland and Finland, where these costs are around 120 and 140 euros, respectively.
Regarding the monthly fee for unbundled loop (active loops) in full access regime, the price in Portugal (11.96 euros) is very close to the European average (which is 11.37 euros), with the most misaligned countries here they are the United Kingdom, Luxembourg and again Ireland.
For the installation by unbundled loop (active loops) under shared access, costs in Portugal are again above the European average, with 96.26 euros against the average 73.64 euros. Even in shared access, subscription costs are below those charged by the EU average, with monthly fees of 2.95 euros in Portugal against a European average of 4.82 euros.
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2005-02-22 – Anacom formalizes interconnection prices and deadlines for installing a local loop
