From our friend Yves Blondeel:

Today, the Dutch regulatory authority OPTA issued a consultation document entitled “Tariff Regulation for Unbundled Fibre Access – Policy Rules” (available in Dutch language only).

OPTA puts forward regulatory principles, as well as tangible one-off and monthly maximum fees (e.g. monthly rental €14.5-€17.5 per FttH fibre pair), for the Optical Distribution Frame access (ODF-access) offer and related facilities (co-location, backhaul) of the envisaged Reggefiber-KPN joint-venture (JV).

This JV, in which KPN aims to have a 41% stake, is subject to clearance by the competition authority NMa, and OPTA has formally proposed that the JV would be included in the KPN designation as the operator with Significant Market Power (SMP) on Market 4 (wholesale (physical) network access at a fixed location), dated 5 Nov 2008. KPN and Reggefiber have opposed OPTA’s proposed SMP finding, although they publicly committed to providing voluntary fibre access.

Today’s OPTA consultation document makes numerous references to the European Commission’s draft Recommendation on regulated access to Next Generation Access networks (and to the ERG response to it), and is presented as the first practical implementation of the principles put forward in these documents.

OPTA positions its proposed regulatory intervention in the context of a ‘trade-off’ between short-term promotion of competition (through access obligations on dominant operators) and the encouragement of (efficient) investment. Regulatory certainty is identified as an important contributor to a favourable environment for investment and innovation, for the benefit of market participants and consumers.

More at http://www.t-regs.com/ …