Prospectus-Final (clean) - Malta Financial Services Authority

Incumbent network operators are obligated to offer upstream services to this company. MagyarTelekom has appealed against the frequency award.European UnionIn July 2009, a new EU roaming regulation came into force and expanded the existing roamingregulation to SMS and data roaming services. This 2009 regulation will be valid until 30 June 2012.Besides additional reduction of wholesale and retail voice roaming tariffs, SMS roaming charges werereduced and price caps for wholesale data roaming tariffs and additional transparency measures wereintroduced. This expansion of existing regulation has an additional negative effect on DeutscheTelekom's roaming revenues.On 1 July 2010, a spending cap was introduced for all customers who did not expressly opt out. Thedata roaming connection is automatically interrupted once EUR 50 (net) is spent, until the customeractively confirms he or she wants to continue using the connection and incur further costs. The currenttariffs of the EU Roaming Regulation entered into force on 1 July 2011. Since then, outgoing callswithin the EU have cost EUR 0.35 plus VAT and incoming calls have cost EUR 0.11 plus VAT. Theinter-operator tariff ("IOT") was reduced to EUR 0.18 plus VAT. Prices for text messages sent orreceived remained unchanged at EUR 0.11 and EUR 0.04 respectively, plus VAT. For data roaming,the IOT was reduced from EUR 0.80 to EUR 0.50 per megabyte.The future of the EU roaming regulation following the expiration of the current regulation in July 2012is currently being discussed by the EU. In its Digital Agenda for Europe, the European Commissionissued the political goal of abolishing the differences between national and roaming rates in the EU by2015.The European Commission's proposed new roaming regulation of 6 July 2011 aims to tighten andextend existing price regulation and the European Commission has also stated that it wants topromote competition. To this extent, a general obligation to provide wholesale access, for MNVOsamong others, is to be introduced in 2012. The unbundling of roaming services and national servicesis to be introduced in 2014, at which time consumers will be able to conclude a separate contract withanother provider exclusively for roaming services. The EU Commission's draft of a new RoamingRegulation dated 6 July 2011 is to be adopted in June following a compromise concluded between theEuropean Parliament and the European Council on 27 March 2012 and is to enter into force on 1 July2012. The conditions were tightened compared with the draft from 6 July 2011, in that the price capsare to be even lower than previously planned. The comprehensive wholesale access obligation – forMVNOs and others – remains unaffected, as is the unbundling of roaming and national servicesplanned from July 2014. These measures will consume a large amount of resources and incur highcosts for the European mobile communications industry.GermanyThe Federal Network Agency has the obligation to review markets every two years. On24 February 2011, the Federal Network Agency approved the new rates for call termination in nationalmobile networks to be applied retroactively by Telekom Deutschland with effect from 1 December2010. This involved reducing Vodafone and Telekom Deutschland GmbH's previously asymmetricrates by around 50%, making them de facto symmetrical. The Federal Network Agency's rate rulingwas the subject of consultation throughout the EU. These rates will expire on 30 November 2012.On 18 April 2012, the Federal Network Agency's draft regulatory orders for fixed-network termination(IC) and mobile termination (MTR) were published. Although the Federal Network Agency does notplan to further tighten regulation through a "pure LRIC" approach for the regulation of charges, there isstill a risk that charges will be cut further. In addition, the scope of regulation was also extended tofixed-network termination in next-generation networks.In May 2010, Telekom Deutschland GmbH purchased spectrum through auction in the 800 MHz,1.8 GHz, and 2.6 GHz frequency ranges and by the end of October 2010 had received assignmentnotices from the Federal Network Agency for all frequencies purchased. The coverage requirementsstipulate for the 800 MHz range that network operators must start rolling out LTE in towns andcommunities that have very little or no broadband coverage. Broadband coverage is to be increased to90% of the population in these gaps by the start of 2016. Roll-out is to be in stages based on thenumber of inhabitants, beginning with municipalities with populations of 5,000 or less. Otherbroadband coverage provided by Deutsche Telekom or other operators (e.g., DSL or UMTS) with a59