Regulator wants Telia to unbundle fibre network

Swedish telecoms regulator PTS yesterday announced a proposal to force incumbent telco TeliaSonera to unbundle its fibre-optic broadband access network. PTS wants the former monopoly, which already offers full local loop unbundling (LLU) over its copper PSTN, to offer a full range of wholesale fibre access services to its competitors, including fibre and ducts, which it believes will lead to a greater choice of services for end-users and lower prices. Earlier obligation decisions regulated only access to the copper network. The proposals form part of plans to enforce regulations to functionally separate all Telia’s wholesale and retail fixed network services. The incumbent has already transferred domestic wholesale fixed operations to its Skanova Access unit, launched on 1 January 2008, which forms part of its Broadband Services division. The PTS says it will now seek opinions on the issue of wholesale fibre access from local operators, the Swedish competition authority and the European Commission, with contributions to be accepted until 9 February 2009, before making a final decision in the summer. Sweden had 453,000 direct fibre/LAN broadband access subscribers at the end of June 2008, according to the regulator, including fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) and fibre-to-the-building (FTTB) customers. At that date, TeleGeography estimates TeliaSonera had 55,000 direct fibre users on its network, with the rest of the country’s FTTx connections provided by alternative access providers over their own infrastructure. In yesterday’s announcement, PTS also proposes a new price regulation model for bitstream access.