[EU/Germay]Viviane Redding stops Deutsche Telekom blackmail

eircomtribunal

Today the EU Commission has stopped German incumbent Deutsche Telekom's blackmail (if we do not get excluded from regulation for our new 50 major cities fibre to the curb expansion project for a certain time, we will not expand and not create 5000 jobs) which had seemed to work with the new coalition gov, desperate to improve the German job situation.
No exclusion will be granted.
Backdrop to the situation here, and here,
German language article in today's The Spiegel about the EU Commission's decision here.

Some more background on the situation also on DSL prime (Dave Burstein):

DT's move to 50 meg gives them a major strategic advantage over Telecom Italia and all others. Customers want speed, the Asian experience proves, because streaming, downloading, software updates and video uploads all thrive on it. Http: web surfing rarely is faster than a megabit, but that's only part of what we do on the web.

Thousands are marching across Germany to protest DT’s 30,000 job cuts amidst corporate predictions of rosy profits. Taking advantage of the political situation, DT tried to blackmail the government into giving them a monopoly on VDSL, threatening another 5,000 layoffs. In response, Telecom Italia/Hansenet is blaming the cancellation of a 200M euro deployment across East Germany on the government giving in. TI’s claim that regulation gave them no choice and DT’s threat to abandon the build probably both stretch the truth. DT will build because it is facing rough competition, losing market share at an astounding rate. TI has been considering backing away since DT has cut some DSL prices in half. The VDSL unbundling is an issue, but the decision to fade back in Germany seems to have predated the unbundling scandal. TI and the other ADSL2 deployments are likely to be obsolete in any district DT brings fiber to the curb. TI, which has cash problems back home, has invested 300M in the present network and 250M to buy the former city carrier from FastWeb, and will continue marketing the areas already built.

Germany 2005 is a clear case of competition benefiting consumers, as the lower prices have increased DSL subs from 6.8M at the beginning of 2005 to 10.4M at yearend. DT’s share has dropped from 91% to 62% in the last two years (Heise). Hoping to protect that progress, EU Commissioner Viviane Redding, “insist that the development of the VDSL market in Germany follows the EU rules and that the dominant player will not be given a head start in a monopoly.” Kurth at RegTP seems uncomfortable with his new boss Angela Merkel’s willingness to give DT more tools to fight off competitors, so what the rules will be is unclear.

DT is pushing the state of the art, considering chips and equipment just beginning to ship, so don’t be surprised if they hit delays.

Is the EU Commission sticking its nose more closely into the Irish situation our only hope?

P.

OfflerCrocGod

eircomtribunal wrote:

Is the EU Commission sticking its nose more closely into the Irish situation our only hope?

P.

Probably. But it's not going to happen, Ireland is not Germany. €ircon isn't even dreaming of rolling out fibre and Brussels is lenient on Dublin for some reason

Sponge Bob

Brussels has noted the relative failure of the 2002 Regulatory framework in Ireland and would welcome suggestions on how to stop the rot before it spreads .