The European Commission has opened an in-depth investigation into the Czech telecom regulator CTU's proposal to regulate wholesale access to mobile networks. The Commission questioned the CTU's claim of joint dominance by the three existing mobile network operators and compatibility of the proposed ex ante regulation.
The CTU noted in a statement that it has been striving to regulate the wholesale mobile market already for a long time in order to safeguard effective competition on the mobile market. This is part of a series of efforts to push down consumer prices for mobile services.
The dissatisfactory end-user prices for mobile services were recently confirmed also by the European Commission, the CTU noted. A Commission study found that prices for mobile services in the Czech Republic are among the highest in the EU.
Announcing its investigation, the Commission said it "does not question as such that the Czech mobile market may not display the characteristics of a fully competitive market". However, the Commission has "serious doubts" whether mobile operators could adopt a common policy that would influence the market in such a way to justify the proposed regulation.
The Commission noted that over 100 MVNOs had launched on the Czech market already and a new operator had acquired spectrum as well. At the moment, "there is sufficient evidence" to conclude that the Czech operators have kept their networks open to MVNOs, without regulation, the Commission said.
On 18 November, CTU submitted a draft analysis of the wholesale mobile market to the European Commission for comment. In the analysis, CTU ascertained joint significant market power of the three mobile network operators O2 Czech Republic, T-Mobile Czech Republic and Vodafone Czech Republic.
The Czech watchdog is now at the beginning of a two-month period in which the draft market analysis will be discussed in detail with the European Commission as well as Berec. Berec will issue its opinion and the European Commission will have to take the utmost account thereof.
The CTU said it still considers that competition on the Czech mobile market is limited to such extent that it deserves regulation. This is also the opinion of more than 130 undertakings that supported CTU's intention in a public consultation on the market analysis. CTU will advocate for the market regulation in the forthcoming meetings with Berec and the European Commission.
