Regulator to Study Tougher Regulation of France Telecom
French telecom regulator ARCEP, unhappy with a France Telecom (FT) offer to provide fiber backhaul services to rivals, will investigate to see if tougher rules are needed. The move followed a public inquiry that heard alternative operators say FT short-changes them on access to fiber connections. The situation could have been avoided if FT could have been split functionally, said telecom attorney Winston Maxwell.
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In May 2005, ARCEP said FT must make its copper loops available to competitors at cost-oriented prices, Maxwell said. But ARCEP decided against immediately ordering the incumbent to make fiber transport services available. That “light-handed” regulatory approach failed when alternative operators complained of substandard treatment compared with how FT deals with its own downstream services, Maxwell said. Competitors must wait weeks or months to learn if a fiber connection is available, whereas FT provides the information to its own services quickly, they said.
FT’s offer is “disappointing,” ARCEP said Tues. The regulator said FT can install DSL gear at many more sites than alternative providers, a head start perhaps based in its discriminatory access to information about existing fiber links, Maxwell said. ARCEP’s inquiry could bring more stringent regulation, he said. FT didn’t return a message seeking comment.
This sort of problem could be avoided if FT could be split functionally as British Telecom’s “Openreach” solution is, Maxwell said. Rivals would have access to FT network services on a nondiscriminatory basis and ARCEP “wouldn’t have to regulate each and every aspect of FT’s wholesale service.” But France doesn’t have functional separation, he said.
Competitive telcos and telecom regulators want the EC to let national regulators impose functional separation when appropriate as part of its revision of the e-communications regulatory framework (CD Nov 17 p7). Information Society & Media Comr. Viviane Reding said competition could rise but warned that the remedy is no panacea.
Separately, FT said this week it will buy equipment from Asia if the EC caps international mobile roaming fees. In a Financial Times interview, FT CEO Didier Lombard was quoted as saying “we will adapt to the situation, which means the telecom sector as whole will suffer. All the European manufacturers will be impacted.”