Parts of the telecoms industry complain that the courtship, which the Cologne Administrative Court found in unusually harsh terms, in particular between the former Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure (BMVI) under Andreas Scheuer (CSU), the Federal Network Agency and the large network operators, is no isolated case. “We are observing with great concern the political influence on important market decisions by the Federal Network Agency,” Friedrich Ufer, managing director of industry association VATM, said on Tuesday. With its decision that the procurement and auction rules drawn up by the Chamber of Presidents of the regulatory authority for the auction of 5G frequencies carried out in 2019 are unlawful, the court “clearly put the politicians in their place in particular”.
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“The Federal Network Agency is not a representative agent of politics – neither in the allocation of frequencies nor in deciding on empty pipes,” Ufer emphasizes. The supervisory authority with its wisdom is indispensable as a competition watchdog. “Unfortunately, we see that the temptation to intervene on behalf of politicians is very great,” industry representatives complain. The actions of the current Federal Digital Ministry in the spring on the occasion of the interim report of the Federal Network Agency watchdog on the strategic superstructure were also “very unfortunate” from the point of view of Deutsche Telekom’s competitors.
iOS 18.1 beta 3: Apple releases “Clean Up” image cleanerUffer said politicians don’t take sides when they influence regulatory decision-making. The independence of the Federal Network Agency is a valuable asset, because competition in the industry “must be defended every day.” Six years after the 5G mobile communications award, there is now a risk that the regulation chapter will have to be worked on again. Legal certainty looks different for everyone involved.
A big slap in the face for the regulator
Stefan Albers, managing director of the Federal Association of Broadband Communications (Braco), saw the Cologne announcement as “a strong slap in the face of the Federal Network Agency”. Apparently the management of the regulatory authority at the time was “biased towards competition-promoting measures and anything other than independent”. In light of the verdict, service provider liability, which was illegally stopped in 2019, should finally be introduced in the frequency expansion decision to be held this year in order to enable real competition in mobile communications. This would mean that Telekom & Co. would have to rent part of its capacity to competitors that do not have their own infrastructure.
With the verdict on DSL turbo vectoring and the acceptance of mere promises from Telekom, Albers fears that the fraud that has now been determined by the courts was not limited to mobile communications, but also affected landline networks. The new management of the Federal Network Agency will now have to demonstrate its independence and, above all, put a stop to the strategic double fibre optic expansion of the Magenta Group.
Plaintiffs EWE TEL and Freenet agree that action on the part of the regulator is much needed. The court has documented that the pure necessity of dialogue between the major network operators and service providers “only resulted in the illegal influences involved in the decision of the Presidential Chamber,” a Freenet spokesperson told Hezbollah online, adding that it is satisfied with the clarity that now exists. Repealing the 5G award decision cannot make up for the years of lost competition. But now “there are no longer any obstacles standing in the way of a decision in the interest of the consumer.”
Conversation alone is not enough
According to the spokesperson, Freenet is now “counting on the fact that the Federal Network Agency will comply with the court’s request promptly, also in light of the ongoing frequency allocation process.” The regulator must now ultimately replace the “need for terminated negotiations” with effective competition regulation, for example with service provider liability.
“The negotiation requirement did not work for us either,” a 1&1 spokeswoman told Heise Online. The newcomer also acquired spectrum in the 2019 auction, but significantly less than Telekom, Vodafone and Telefonica Deutschland. “It took more than five years until we were able to conclude a national roaming contract on the Vodafone network last week,” 1&1 continued. “For the time being, we have to make do with discriminatory national roaming from Telefonica, which has been in place since 2014 based on EU merger requirements.” The company, whose 5G network expansion has been constantly hit by obstacles, therefore wants to carefully examine the reasons for the decision before taking possible further steps, which are not yet available.
(MKI)
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