Public consultation on the Draft BEREC Report on the regulation of physical infrastructure access
During the 61st BEREC plenary meeting (5 December 2024), the Board of Regulators has approved the Draft BEREC Report on the regulation of physical infrastructure access for public consultation.
This report is focused on the use of physical infrastructure access for the deployment of fixed very high-capacity networks. It provides an overview of the access to physical infrastructure in Europe, irrespective of whether it is owned by telecommunications or non-telecommunications operators, as well as the strategies undertaken by electronic communications operators when aiming to expand their network and needed to make use of physical infrastructure elements. Information was collected from 29 countries in Europe with a cut-off date as of July 2024. The draft report presents BEREC’s findings on the matter, including insights on the interplay between asymmetric and symmetric regulation as regards the access to physical infrastructure.
BEREC questionnaire addressed topics such as the availability/reusability of the physical infrastructure for the rollout of very high-capacity networks, the way in which physical infrastructure access had been treated in the market analyses and how corresponding relevant markets have been defined, data collection for the market assessment, the physical infrastructure elements that were under the scope of the specific obligations and what were the obligations that applied (including details about the transparency obligation and aspects related to the quality of the SMP offer). Other points of interest for BEREC’s research were related to the feedback received by the NRAs on the market notifications, asymmetric and symmetric regulation for physical infrastructure access and their role for incentivizing the rollout of networks and, finally, forward-looking, the expected evolutions and challenges ahead that NRAs could identify at this stage.
Interested parties are kindly asked to submit their contributions here by Wednesday, 19 February 2025, close of business. After submitting the contribution, an acknowledgment confirmation page will be displayed. Contributions should be sent preferably in English and, in order to facilitate processing of the responses, the comments provided should clearly refer to certain sections/subsections/paragraphs of the document.
In accordance with the BEREC policy on public consultations, BEREC will publish all contributions and a summary of these contributions, respecting confidentiality requests. Any such request should clearly indicate which information is considered confidential. In case the contribution is partially deemed as confidential, a non-confidential version of the submission needs to be delivered as well.