T-Mobile Netherlands is taking legal action to stop KPN's plan to shut down the copper network. T-Mobile said it needs more time to migrate customers to fibre, and under KPN's current planning, it could be forced to take more expensive wholesale services from the incumbent.
The company has asked for a court injunction to delay the start of the copper network shutdown by two years. T-Mobile noted that a new market analysis is underway by the regulator ACM, and this results of this should be taken into account. The court is expected to rule on the suit in November.
KPN earlier announced plans to start the copper shutdown from 2023. The operator has accelerated its FTTP roll-out and wants to save on the costs of maintaining two networks at once.
T-Mobile said it was not against the move to fibre, but not if the company and its customers suffer as a result. The operator claims fibre tariffs at KPN are much higher than the underlying cost of the services. Even with the same speeds, a wholesale fibre lines costs much more than a copper connection. As a result, T-Mobile must charge higher prices for end-users, and KPN is avoiding price competition, the operator said.
KPN has already tested a copper shutdown in six areas with fibre coverage, in cooperation with wholesale partners like T-Mobile. However, T-Mobile told Telecompaper that migration in these areas led to a significant loss of customers.
Three years for migration to fibre
T-Mobile wants KPN to allow at least three years from the announcement to shutdown of copper in an area. This provides time for implementing new fibre products, adjusting networks and IT systems, preparing customers for the switch and completing the migration. T-Mobile said such a timeframe is recommended by the European Commission and was imposed by the ACM for earlier phasing out of wholesale services. With the details of the copper shutdown announced only in May this year, a widescale migration from 2023 is simply not possible, T-Mobile said.
The ACM announced in July that it was working on a new analysis of the fixed broadband market and expects to have a draft decision on regulating KPN's networks ready before the end of this year. After a public consultation, the new regulation could take effect later in 2022.
