Watchdog issues Eircom warning over wholesale obligations, threatens court order

Ireland’s telecoms watchdog the Commission for Communications Regulation (ComReg) has warned former monopoly operator Eircom that it has not complied with its ‘non-discrimination obligations’, as laid down in Section 6 ComReg decision D07/61 in 2007, which stipulates the agreed levels of service it must provide to other telecoms operators in the Republic. In issuing the notice, the regulator has given Eircom five weeks to fall into line, or face possible sanctions in the High Court. Last Friday, ComReg published its findings that the carrier is believed to be repairing a higher proportion of its own retail line faults, compared to wholesale line faults, adding that altnets are waiting up to four days after notifying Eircom of a known issue, before any remedial action is taken. The problems, SiliconRepublic reports, relate to line issues between August 2011 and August 2012. In order to sell their own broadband services, altnets such as Vodafone Ireland, Magnet Networks and Digiweb have struck wholesale agreements with the former monopoly in order to purchase local loop access for bitrate DSL services etc. Further, alternative operators can if they wish pay for unbundled local loop (ULL) access for co-locating equipment in Eircom’s exchanges. In failing to redress technical faults for its rivals, Eircom is accused of putting itself at a commercial advantage over its rivals.