registration document France Telecom 2009 - Orange.com

6 OVERVIEW
overview of the group’s business
OF BUSINESS
United Kingdom
In April 2010, Ofcom submitted a four-year glide path of MTRs, running from April 1, 2011 to March 31, 2015 for public consultation.
The proposed MTRs are given in the following table, and will be adjusted for infl ation:
(pence per minute) 2010/11 20011/12 2012/13 20013/14 2014/15
Vodafone / O2 / Orange / T-Mobile 4.3 2.5 1.5 0.9 0.5
H3G 4.6 2.5 1.5 0.9 0.5
Ofcom noted that it would make its fi nal decision in the second half of 2010.
Wholesale Tariffs
In May 2009, Ofcom announced the new ceiling for the price of
full local loop unbundling at £86.40 a year as of October 2010
(compared to £81.69, previously), the shared access price
remained unchanged at £15.60 a year (“New Pricing Framework
for Openreach”). Consultations regarding the wholesale
markets of unbundling and broadband are taking place in the
fi rst quarter of 2010.
In December 2009, Ofcom issued a consultation on the
regulatory treatment of certain costs relating to employee
retirement which may have some impact on the r egulatory
c osts. Ofcom is considering publishing a decision at end 2010
taking into account the comments received.
Retail Market for Access and Telephone Communications
In September 2009, Ofcom adopted a fi nal decision on the
access to the public telephone network and telephones services,
which established that competition on this market is effective. BT
is therefore no longer designated as an SMP operator. Ofcom
considers that wholesale market remedies alone are suffi cient.
BT now has the possibility to introduce innovative bundled offers.
Fixed Call Termination Market
Ofcom notifi ed a draft decision on the fi xed call termination
market, suggesting imposing an obligation of transparency for
alternative operators while maintaining the obligation to provide
fair and reasonable call termination tariffs. In October 2009,
the European Commission invited the UK regulator to impose
on fi xed termination rates an adequate ex ante control and a
non-discrimination obligation on all communication providers.
In February 2010, Ofcom adopted a decision on this market,
imposing upon alternative operators to publish their fi xed call
termination rates.
Wholesale Line Rental
In October 2009, Ofcom proposed new tariffs for Wholesale
Line Rental (WLR): the two current tariffs applied for Residential
and Business WLR will be replaced by a single one. A new
WLR Service will be offered to all customers, residential and
business, at the price of £100.68 until March 2011.
Z WHOLESALE LINE RENTAL Current price (£) Oct. 09 / March 10 (£) 2010 / 2011
Core subscription 100.68 100.68 RPI +3.8%
Transfer charge 2.00 3.00 RPI +3.8%
New connection 88.00 67.00 RPI -16%
In February 2010, Ofcom adopted a fi nal decision in compliance
with the October 2009 draft decision.
To summarize the main trends, Ofcom has started a process
of removing the incumbent’s obligations on some markets.
A number of Ofcom’s 2009 decisions are currently subject to
appeal, especially the price ceilings for local loop unbundling
and shared access, as well as the proposed tariff for wholesale
line rental.
The frequency auction project (both 800 MHz and 2.6 GHz)
needs a parliamentary approval. At the soonest, spectrum
auctions could take place at the end of 2010 or in the fi rst
semester 2011. The frequencies in the 800 MHz band will not
be available for telecom operators before 2013.
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2009 REGISTRATION DOCUMENT / FRANCE TELECOM