Belgian regulators have approved the plan to open the cable networks to competition. While incumbent telecoms operator Belgacom said it was pleased with the extension of access regulation to the cable sector, the country's leading cable operator Telenet said it will pursue legal action to halt the measures. From 1 August, the regulators including BIPT will work with the operators to develop the technical and financial conditions for implementing the regulations. The aim is to to open the market to new alternative providers of broadband and analogue and digital TV over cable networks. If all goes to plan, the terms and conditions should be in place by October 2012. The cable operators affected include Telenet, Brutele, Numericable, Tecteo and AIESH, which will have to make a wholesale offer to other service providers. Belgacom is excluded from taking up the wholesale cable offer, as it already has a national VDSL2 network to offer digital TV and high-speed broadband. However, the incumbent will be able to resell the analogue TV offer from Telenet and others. The regulatory decision also confirms most of Belgacom's previous requirements for unbundled and bitstream access and adds the requirement for a multicast option for alternative operators to offer competitive triple-play services over the telecom network. The concrete requirements for cable operators include access to an analogue TV resale offer, access to the digital TV platform, and access to a broadband internet resale offer. AIESH, which does not offer digital services, is excluded from the last two requirements, as is Belgacom from participating in the offers.
