Broadband

Access to Telekom Austria's broadband bitstream enables Internet service providers to offer their customers broadband Internet services. Bitstream access creates key competitive impulses and thus contributes to improving the provision of broadband services in Austria. Together with unbundling, this form of access is the most significant obligation which enables alternative Internet service providers to offer broadband Internet access to their own retail customers.

Details regarding market definition

Due to the increasing substitution of fixed-network broadband subscriptions by mobile broadband subscriptions supported by demand-side studies, the existing market definition of the wholesale broadband access market in the Telecommunications Market Ordinance 2008 ("TKMV 2008") had to be modified.

As a consequence of the a.m. changes in the competitive environment for the market segment with regard to residential customers, the wholesale broadband access market had to be confined to non-residential customers by an adaptation of § 1 para 11 TKMV 2008; this modification (Federal Law Gazette II No. 468/2009) entered into force on Feb. 1, 2010. 

In its adapted form, the broadband market must also be regarded as susceptible to ex-ante regulation at the present time.

Ex ante obligations (i.e., obligations imposed on SMP companies in advance) serve to define the general competitive conditions on this market. By imposing ex ante obligations, the regulatory authority intends to encourage development toward sustainable, effective competition.

In material terms, this market currently comprises the provision of bi-directional broadband access to non-residential subscribers at the wholesale level exclusively by means of digital subscriber line (DSL) services based on copper-wire pairs regardless whether fibre is used or not to connect the subscriber at a given concentration point.

Internal or external connections via other access technologies like e.g. CATV, UMTS/HSPA, PLC (Powerline communications), wireless connections (WLL, W-LAN, Wimax), fibre (FTTH) or broadband connections via satellite as well as access forms realised via leased lines or unbundled local loops are not part of this market.

In geographical terms, this market comprises the entire federal territory of Austria.

Market analysis

On this market, the following ex ante obligations have been imposed on A1 Telekom Austria AG (cf. the Telekom-Control Commission's Official Decision M 1/10 of November 15, 2010):
 

• Obligation to grant access to the broadband bitstream for non-residential customers
• Obligation to offer corresponding wholesale products when new retail products are launched
• Regional traffic handover at nine interconnection points
• National traffic handover at one of those nine interconnection points (as chosen by the Internet service provider requiring traffic handover)
• Access to a "naked DSL" product
• Availability of a voice-over-broadband option including integrated transfer volume
• Obligation of non-discrimination
• Price regulation based on "retail minus" calculations avoiding a margin squeeze (charges for single wholesale product must cover wholesale charge plus avoidable cost of A1 Telekom Austria AG)
• Reference offer regarding all bitstream products offered
• 4-week advance notice vis-a-vis wholesale partners in case of modification of wholesale products and new retail products
• Separate accounting and a cost accounting system in order to prevent illicit cross-subsidization.

Click here for the current definition of the wholesale market for broadband access.

Click here to view the Telekom-Control Commission's decision (M 1/10) of November 15, 2010.