BoR (11) 06b BEREC report NGA Country Cases - IRG

BoR (11) 06b
� Elaborate on the rationale for allowing or not allowing a decommissioning of MDFs, and
any conditions involved. E.g., approval for a phase-out may be made contingent upon the
availability of an equivalent alternative wholesale product. 3
In order to ensure that the network transformation process has effectively begun, the
decommission announcement is only possible when, for at least 25% of Telefónica‟s
customers in the MDF (retail and bitstream), all services are provided through other means
than copper cables from that MDF. Telefónica must also inform about the exact date to
close the exchange.
� In its report “NGA – Implementation Issues and Best Practice” 4 BEREC suggested that “in
addition to the reference offer – wholesale customers should be able to obtain relevant
information on roll-out of new infrastructures or technologies per geographical area. A
reasonable window of announcement is necessary to create a level playing field on the
retail market”.
- Explain if such provisions are applied and what they look like.
At least 6 months in advance, Telefónica must provide to the alternative operators using
wholesale access services and to the NRA detailed information about any change
foreseen in the architecture and characteristics of the copper access network, including
those that even without affecting the wholesale access service conditions could imply a
potential change on the retail service offer. Therefore, all network nodes relating to FTTN
deployment must be announced six months in advance.
Additionally, Telefónica must inform about the FTTH deployment plans by providing
updated information at least 6 months in advance. Hence, Telefónica must provide the list
of central offices which act as optical headers, the location and the area covered by each
one as well as the date they will be operational.
- Elaborate on your practical experiences with such provisions (e.g. have there been any
practical problems with enforcing such provisions?).
No remarkable problems have been detected.
� Are there any provisions dealing with stranded assets? Investments by alternative
operators get sunk if the closure of MDFs implies that pay-back periods are shorter than
3 See ERG (07) 16rev2, Ch. 4.5.2 and in particular the flow-chart diagram illustrating procedural
issues in the substitution phase.
4 BoR (10) 08; Chapter E.2, p. 9.
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