Lack of legal basis hampering competition in the area of telecommunication connection
Bern, 22.06.2018 - The Federal Communications Commission (ComCom) is unable to organise virtual unbundling because the necessary legislation does not exist. For this reason, ComCom had to reject a corresponding application from Sunrise even though virtual access to the subscriber line could stimulate competition. Within the scope of the ongoing revision of the Federal Telecommunications Act, however, Parliament has the possibility of introducing an obligation to grant technology-neutral and virtual access to the network of a market-dominating operator. This could improve competition and the range of choices for consumers.
A new application for regulated access to “virtually unbundled local access” (VULA) was submitted in February 2018. VULA is an alternative to physical unbundling and resembles a bitstream offering. With VULA, a continuous broadband data connection can be provided from the local exchange to the customer also via a hybrid line (consisting of optical fibre and copper cable).
ComCom rejected this application from Sunrise because the existing Federal Telecommunications Act does not contain a sufficient legal basis for the introduction of virtual unbundling and in Switzerland only copper cables are regulated (cf. decision on the ComCom website).
In the view of ComCom, however, the existing instruments for regulating access are out of date and can no longer be used for ensuring competition, for example concerning hybrid connections that comprise both fibre optic and copper cable. In view of this, ComCom is proposing that, within the scope of the ongoing revision of the Federal Telecommunications Act, Parliament should introduce the option of technology-neutral and virtual access to the subscriber line for connection to a market-dominating operator.
Unbundling solely of copper cable is now outdated
At many locations, Swisscom is now laying fibre optic cable to within a short distance from the buildings. The existing copper cables will then only be used over the last 50 to 200 metres. Thanks to new transmission processes (e.g. vectoring, G.fast), Swisscom is able to attain high bandwidths on the remaining copper cables and offer them to clients.
Those competitors who have invested in the physical unbundling of copper cable will lose out: a competitive offering could often no longer be provided with physical unbundling of the local loop because of unilateral conditions (restricted use of frequencies on copper cable, no free choice of technology). In particular, if the network operator itself uses vectoring, then only the slow ADSL technology could be used on the unbundled loop. In order to be able to provide clients with competitive offers, the alternative providers are thus compelled to procure a commercial broadband service (BBCS) from Swisscom.
Address for enquiries
Stephan Netzle, President of ComCom, phone +41 58 463 52 90
Publisher
Federal Communications Commission ComCom
http://www.comcom.admin.ch/
