On March 31, 2009, the Federal Network Agency approved new charges for access to Deutsche Telekom AG's (DT AG) subscriber line (TAL), commonly referred to as the 'last mile'. On the same date, the Federal Network Agency also announced its decisions regarding the new charges for call termination in their respective mobile networks, known as mobile termination, to the German mobile network operators T-Mobile Deutschland GmbH, Vodafone D2 GmbH, E-Plus Mobilfunk GmbH & Co. KG, and Telefónica O2 (Germany) GmbH & Co. OHG. These decisions became effective on April 1, 2009.
For the lease of the TAL, competitors will now pay DT AG 10.20 Euros per month, a reduction from the previous 10.50 Euros. DT AG had initially applied for an increase to 12.90 Euros in January. This monthly access charge primarily covers essential investments, such as the materials and installation costs for the 'last mile'.
In accordance with the decisions announced today to the four mobile network operators, termination charges for mobile networks, effective April 1, 2009, will be 6.59 ct/min for the two D-networks and 7.14 ct/min for the E-networks.
Consequently, the new charges for T-Mobile and Vodafone D2 are more than 16 percent lower, and for E-Plus and O2 nearly 19 percent lower, than the previous rates of 7.92 ct/min and 8.80 ct/min, respectively.
The monthly access charges for the TAL are valid for a two-year period, until March 31, 2011, whereas the approval for mobile termination charges has been limited until november 30, 2010.
Source: Press release of the Federal Network Agency
Goldberg Rechtsanwälte
Lawyer Michael Ullrich, LL. M. (Information Law)
Specialist Lawyer for Information Technology Law (IT Law)
Email: Info@goldberg.de
