Another legal setback for Telekom in the Open Network Access dispute. The Cologne Administrative Court has upheld the Federal Network Agency’s decision from March in an accelerated procedure, according to which Telekom Deutschland GmbH must grant Deutsche Glasfaser access to empty pipes in the publicly funded telecommunications network on two routes in the Bavarian communities of Heusdorf and Grossenseebach, as requested.
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Telecoms are not allowed to charge any fees that are independent of the actual access provided, for example for making an offer. According to the court, such costs could result in “no open network access to the subsidized network, even if there would have been demand and capacity.” The company seeking access must bear the cost risk associated with the request.
The Administrative Court announced on Monday that it had made an emergency decision on June 24 following a “summary examination” of the arguments presented by both parties and has now sent it to those involved (ref.: 1 L 681/24). Above all, it refers to Section 155 TKG. Accordingly, network operators that have used government funding for broadband expansion must generally make all types of active and passive access products available to competitors in a timely manner and under fair and reasonable terms.
Telekom defended itself against the competitor’s application, mainly with the argument that it could not offer open access to third parties because the empty pipes were too thin. However, the Federal Network Agency did not accept the reference to a lack of capacity: the Bonn company had defined its understanding of the infrastructure to be financed too narrowly.
Urgent application from Telekom
Telekom filed an urgent application against the regulatory authority’s decision, which the Cologne judges have now rejected. They justify this by saying that the network agency based its decision on a broad understanding of the infrastructure that is supposed to be supported. This is the only way to enable effective open network access “to compensate for the distortion of competition caused by public funding”.
The emergency decision is indisputable. But the issue is not yet out of discussion, a spokesman for Deutsche Glasfaser told the community: The main proceedings regarding the legality of the federal network agency’s decision are still pending: “A decision cannot be expected in the short term.” There is nothing the municipality can do about this.
For the residents of the affected areas, fibre optic expansion is currently unlikely to happen quickly. According to the municipality, Deutsche Glasfaser has already abandoned its expansion plans in the main town of Heidendorf. In the districts of Untermenbach, Niederlindaich and Hainburg The network operator is firm on its expansion plans And wanted to lay its own fibre optics from Telecom’s existing local nodes to individual streets.
(vbr)
