Doing Business in the Netherlands 2012 - American Chamber of ...

Doing Business in the Netherlands 2012
arrangements with the landowner in order to prevent the ducts from
becoming the property of the landowner.
The municipal authorities are charged with coordinating the work
relating to the laying, maintenance and clearance of cables within their
jurisdictions.
12.6 Significant Market Power
The TW enables OPTA to impose several obligations on market
parties that have been designated to have significant market power
(SMP). KPN Telecom has been designated as a party with SMP in
various communications markets, i.e., (i) public fixed telephony; (ii)
leased lines, with the exception of lines having a capacity greater than
2 Mb; and (iii) public mobile telephony. Orange, Tele2, T-Mobile and
Vodafone were also designated in 2008 as parties with significant
market power on the market for public mobile telephony. Regarding
broadband, in April 2010, OPTA has published a market analysis with
regard to unbundled access at a wholesale level (“unbundled local
loop”). In its analysis, OPTA has designated KPN as a party with
significant market power.
12.7 Interoperability
Save for certain specified exemptions, all providers of electronic
communications networks and services within the Netherlands that
control end-user access to network termination points are generally
obliged to enter into negotiations to achieve interoperability between
and among their respective end users. OPTA may set a term within
which an interconnection agreement must be concluded.
The distinction between direct and indirect interconnection is left out
in the new TW. More onerous interconnection obligations apply to
providers who have been designated by OPTA as having SMP in the
market sector concerned. The “dominant” providers are obliged to (i)
offer interconnection to their networks on non-discriminatory
conditions; (ii) provide other operators with all necessary information,
Baker & McKenzie 107