Interconnection

One essential area of regulation involves efforts to create the conditions necessary to allow new entrants to provide their services on the market. In order to enable competition between new providers and the former monopolist, it is necessary to ensure access to the former monopolist's telecommunications network, which is essentially achieved through the interconnection (IC) of networks.

The interconnection of communications networks serves to ensure interoperability between subscribers in all public telephone networks (Art. 22 TKG 2003) and is defined in Art. 3 No. 25 TKG 2003.

Under Art. 48 Par. 1 TKG 2003, every operator of a public communications network is obliged to provide an interconnection offer to other operators of such networks upon request. In this context, all parties involved must pursue the objective of enabling and improving communication among the users of different public communications networks. Should these operators be unable to reach an agreement on interconnection in accordance with Art. 48 TKG 2003, then any party involved can call upon the regulatory authority (Art. 50 Par. 1 TKG 2003). In order to involve the regulatory authority, an interconnection service must have been requested and the operators must have attempted to negotiate an agreement on that service for a minimum of six weeks. As the regulatory authority only plays a subsidiary role in this process, another requirement is that no valid agreement on the respective interconnection service exists between the communications network operators and no order has been issued by the regulatory authority in lieu of the agreement which could not be reached.

The regulatory authority's order, which defines the terms and conditions of interconnection, ultimately serves as a substitute for the required private-law agreement which could not be reached by the operators (Art. 121 Par. 3 TKG 2003).

Positions of significant market power (Art. 35 TKG 2003) identified on markets susceptible to sector-specific ex-ante regulation (such as the markets for origination and termination; cf. RTR's Telecommunications Markets Regulation 2003) may have effects on how interconnection relationships are realized.

The contract currently used by A1 Telekom Austria AG for interconnection (origination/termination) with its fixed telecommunications network is available on http://cdn2.a1.net/final/de/media/pdf/Zusammenschaltungsvertrag_zw_A1TA_u_ANB.pdf

For interconnection (origination/termination) with its mobile telecommunications network, A1 Telekom Austria AG uses a "Contract on mutual traffic management" published on http://cdn3.a1.net/final/de/media/pdf/RIO_mobil.pdf.