On June 30, 2008, the Federal Network Agency announced two tariff decisions concerning the telecommunications sector. Both approvals pertain to wholesale products that Deutsche Telekom AG (DT AG) offers to its competitors under regulatory obligations.
Effective July 1, 2008, new charges were initially approved for the one-time fees that competitors must pay to DT AG for the activation or return of the leased subscriber line (TAL), commonly referred to as the 'last mile'.
While DT AG's application had proposed tariff increases of in some cases significantly over 50 percent, the approval includes minor reductions for most tariff items (between 0.2 percent and 4.1 percent). For the takeover of the local loop (TAL) without requiring work at the end customer's premises, DT AG can henceforth charge a fee of 35.70 Euros. For the most frequent scenario (new activation of the high-bit-rate copper twisted pair with work at the main distribution frame and at the end customer's premises), the new tariff is 62.37 Euros.
Also approved, effective July 1, 2008, were the provision and termination charges, as well as the monthly fees for shared access to the local loop (TAL), known as 'Line Sharing'. In Line Sharing, the TAL is divided by frequency bands into a lower and a higher frequency range. This enables DT AG to continue using the lower frequency range for voice transmission, while a competitor can utilize the upper frequency range for data transmission (typically for high-speed internet access based on DSL technology). A monthly access fee of 1.78 Euros has been approved for granting access to the high-bit-rate portion of the TAL. The charge for the most common provision variant, new activation without work at the main distribution frame or at the end customer's premises, is now 58.98 Euros.
Both decisions took into account the impact of the collective bargaining agreements concluded last year between DT AG and the services trade union ver.di, concerning organizational changes and, specifically, increases in weekly working hours.
All charges have been approved until the end of June 2010.
Source: Press release of the Federal Network Agency dated June 30, 2008, Federal Network Agency for Electricity, Gas, Telecommunications, Post and Railways Press Office, Tulpenfeld 4, 53113 Bonn, http://www.bundesnetzagentur.de/enid/2.html
Goldberg Attorneys at Law, Wuppertal-Solingen 2008
Attorney at Law Michael Ullrich, LL.M.(Information Law)
m.ullrich@goldberg.de
