EC puts ceiling on leased line pricing

eircomtribunal

Because "some" national regulators failed to regulate for adequate leased line pricing, the EC recommends a ceiling on leased line prices in all of Europe.

It publishes a list which makes interesting reading, as – on a first glance – Irish leased line pricing is not simply above all the recommended ceiling prices, but sometimes in multiples of the ceiling prices.

The EC article is here.

The EC pdf with the recommended pricing table is here. The pricing ceiling table is on page 6.

The current EC wide leased line pricing tables, including the Irish pricing is in this EC document from page 41 onwards.

P.

Sponge Bob

Is this the under the "minimum set of leased lines" , a part of the USO directive laid down in Brussels not by the regulators in each country ....its an appendix .

eircomtribunal

Here's the table with the EC recommended ceiling prices for leased lines:


Compare that with the pricing of our incumbent!

As far as I can make out the current leased line prices (for interconnect!?) are
(this now being a comparison of the two first columns of the recommended ceiling table with our current pricing):

for 64 kbits and 2km: €76 +€23 (=1/24 of connection) = €99 (EC:€61)
for 64 kbits and 5km: €80 +€23 (=1/24 of connection) = €103 (EC:€78)

for 2Mbit/s and 2 km: €497 +€34 (=1/24 of connection) = €541 (EC:€186)
for 2Mbit/s and 5 km: €546 +€34 (=1/24 of connection) = €580 (EC:€248)

for 34 Mbit/s and 2km: €3752 +€58 (=1/24 of connection) = €3810 (EC:€892)
for 34 Mbit/s and 5km: €4363 +€58 (=1/24 of connection) = €4421 (EC:€963)

(there are also retail leased line prices given, as opposed to interconnect; I'm not sure which one's to compare. Using the Irish retail leased line pricing we would even be further above the new EC recommended ceiling prices.)

P.

damien

Comreg issued the results of their market analysis on the leased line
market: http://www.comreg.ie/publications/default.asp?ctype=5&nid=101918

They have adopted their previously proposed approach. The main points to
note are as follows :
eircom is not dominant in the market for 2Mb+ leased lines.

Existing obligations re publication of prices are to be removed
Existing obligations remain for leased lines up to and including 2Mb
Existing obligations for wholesale leased lines and PPCs remain in place

As Peter mentioned: the EU Commission has issued a recommendation on leased line pricing. It seems that eircom's leased line prices (2Mb, 34Mb, 155Mb) are way above the suggested thresholds. This does provide an opportunity for, and some pressure on, ComReg to look again at eircom's pricing. Under the Recommendation, Comreg can seek to adjust leased line prices if they are too high.

ro2

Good to see you'll be able to get an STM-1 for half the current price of an E3 if this is implemented. I think this would be a good one for IrelandOffline to get behind as these prices effect the bottom line of a lot of companies around the country.

What's the procedure for these EC recommendations to become law?