Italian regulator publishes wholesale access proposals

The Italian telecoms regulator Agcom has approved a draft resolution on wholesale access to Telecom Italia’s (TI’s) fixed network for the period 2014-2017. The watchdog has submitted two proposals for public consultation; the first would maintain the current regulatory approach across the whole Italian market, while the second would split the country into ‘A’ and ‘B’ areas. The B areas would be regions where at least two rival operators had achieved substantial coverage with next-generation access networks, while the A areas would be the regions still dominated by former monopoly TI. Agcom says it would be able to take a lighter regulatory approach in the B areas, where a decent level of competition already exists. A full unbundled local loop (ULL) connection would cost EUR8.69 (USD9.80) under the first scenario, as well as in the A areas under the second plan, while the ULL price in the B areas would be fixed at a higher level no greater than EUR9.40.