16 Rev2b NGA Opinion Supplementary doc - IRG

ERG (07) 16rev2b NGA Opinion Supplementary Doc 45 / 69
- to publish and to update quarterly the plans for modernization of the access network
(including deployment of ONUs) at least with 12 months before proceeding to modify of
the access network. This information must be updated quarterly.
Broadband market snapshot
The Romanian broadband market shows an interesting feature: the mobile access
(CDMA/EVDO, EDGE and 3G) had the largest market share over time, followed by UTP/FTP
cable (also called “neighbourhood networks”) and coaxial cable.
The most common support for providing fixed high-speed access to Internet is UTP/FTP cable.
These so-called neighbourhood networks consists of large LANs connected to the internet
using a broadband connections purchased from the larger ISPs. The market share of
UTP/FTP has increased significantly in the past year reaching 29.6% of the total broadband
connections at the end of 2006.
According to the data available at 31st of December 2006, there were 393.514 coaxial cable
subscribers. The share of cable modem in the broadband market, which reached 22.2% at
the end of 2006, has slowly decreased in the last couple of years, mainly due competition
from UTP/FTP cable. The modem cable had a growth of 20% in the last year becoming one
of the most mature and affordable services in the market.
The DSL part of the retail market is dynamic in Romania with the number of subscribers increasing
by 118% in the last 6 months of 2006. Still, the penetration rate of DSL in the total
broadband access is about 5.5%, situation caused mainly by the competition from the
UTP/FTP and cable operators, the late introduction of DSL services by the incumbent (in
May 2005) and also of the LLU services (as a result of the regulatory measures, RUO was
published in September 2004, but the first LLU contract was signed in March 2005). Furthermore,
regulated bitstream services are not available yet.
2.10 Spain
Spain has a fixed telephone network with over 18 million lines in service, which represents a
penetration rate on the total population of 41%. The number of users with broadband internet
access amounted, in June 2007, to 7.4 million (residential and businesses, which represents
a penetration of 16.6% on the total population), 21% of them via cable operators, and
over 1.1 million users having an unbundled local loop. Telefónica, the incumbent operator,
has a network with around 17 million copper pairs installed, with over 16 million in service.
Telefónica has made public announcements regarding deployment of a new generation network
to enable new services. In those announcements, the availability of higher bandwidth is
seen as a driver for convergent services, speeding the evolution towards an “all IP” network
and opening new services to end customers. This will be supported on the one side by an
evolution of the IP network (a single IP network for fixed and mobile services, based on a
common backbone and IMS), also progressively substituting the ATM network by an ethernet
aggregation network for xDSL services. And on the other side by an evolution of the access
network, which would need to be evolved in three variants: VDSL from the CO (for customers
in the neighbourhood of the CO), VDSL from a street cabinet (ie, FTTN, for those cases
where it is possible to install street cabinets, as the existing network is not based on a SC
architecture) and optical access (FTTH, for the rest of cases). The objectives, presented by
Telefónica in the Fifth Investor Conference in Valencia (May 2006), include bandwidth of at
least 25 Mbit/s for more than 40% of the population by 2009.
Telefónica held in 2005 a limited FTTH trial based on PON in the outskirts of Madrid. A new
trial, covering FTTx/VDSL2 and FTTH, has started in Madrid (from 16 th April). Although alter-