TeliaSonera to contest PTS interconnect ruling

TeliaSonera is to appeal a decision by the Swedish National Post and Telecom Agency (PTS) to regulate connections to its PSTN by other operators, including the setting of prices and terms of service. PTS says that the country’s new Act on Electronic Communication requires it to actively regulate the market, but the telco has rejected the ruling as ‘unlawful’ and a misinterpretation of the new legislation. The company said: ‘the decision by the PTS has no legal basis since there are a number of operators offering different services for telephony connections in stiff competition with one another. The law allows the agency to intervene only when the market does not function.’ It added that, ‘in a market with cut-throat competition, where a number of operators are fighting for customers with different networks and offerings, the market is functioning, in which case, normal competition law should be applied and not the Act on Electronic Communication.’