The Danish Ministry of Trade and Growth said it is putting an analysis of competition in the broadband sector out for public consultation. The hearing finishes on 19 January 2015. In its summary, the analysis said the Danish broadband market is highly concentrated, with TDC having a market share of about 60 percent. The analysis was completed before Telia Denmark and Telenor Denmark announced that they were bringing their Danish operations into a joint venture, the ministry noted.
There are structural conditions that pose a challenge to functioning competition in the longer term, the analysis said. The broadband market is very much tied up with efficiencies of scale, partly because of the cost of establishing access infrastructure, Few companies have their own broadband infrastructure and for historical reasons, TDC owns the nationwide copper network and the country's largest cable television network. This does not happen in other European Union countries, it said.
TDC also has a fibre optic network, as do other companies, chiefly energy companies. Because of TDC's dominant position, the Business Authority has imposed obligations on TDC. The energy companies are not obliged to provide access to their grids to competitiors, although TDC signed a network agreement with Trefor in October 2014, it said.
The analysis involved an opinion poll among the publc by Megafon, an analysis of market trends up to 2020 by Innovation Lab, the English language document 'Analysis of market structures in the Danish broadband market' by WIK-Consult, and an assessment of investment incentives by Incentive.
