Regulation spurs Telefónica to threaten to stop fibre deployment


Details

Juan Fernandez Gonzalez

| 20 November 2015




Shortly after Spain's telecoms watchdog announced new regulation to force telcos to share fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) networks in less connected areas, Telefónica is said to be considering stopping or reducing its investments.



The new regulation project of the Comisión Nacional de los Mercados y la Competencia (CNMC) says the prevailing telecom operator (which in Spain is Telefónica) will be forced to offer virtual access to its FTTH network in those cities in which there are fewer than three fibre operators.

The project paints a future situation in which Telefónica, after carrying an significant financial outlay to deploy the network, sees third companies, and competitors, taking advantage of the installed fibre. FTTH would then stop being a differential offer in the telco's convergent packages.

The CNMC has already identified an area of several towns and cities, covering 26% of Spain's population, where the new rules might be applied. Prices to access the network are also to be regulated by the CNMC.

“This decision is going to reduce investments in Spain's telecoms and may imply the end of the successful model of FTTH deployment we have been carrying so far, which has placed Spain as the European country with more fibre homes”, said Telefónica in a short release.

The CNMC project has now one month for appeals and will then be discussed for approval.