In terms of the development of NGA, the importance of ensuring conditions of non-discrimination and of safeguarding conditions of info-inclusion is beyond dispute, both for the innovation that it brings in the provision of services to citizens, and due to issues that arise in terms of promoting competition.
Accordingly, and bearing in mind that current and foreseeable developments in NGA raise various questions connected to the current regulated offers and the impact that they will have in the markets, ICP-ANACOM set out to enact a regulatory approach to NGA which was coherent and consistent with the objectives of regulation enshrined in law, including ensuring the necessary balance between promoting competition and encouraging the development of innovative, diversified and quality services, thereby upholding the protection of interests of users.
Alongside these concerns, it is important for this Authority to achieve the objective of promoting investment in these networks - ensuring greater transparency and predictability so that individual market players are able to make informed and timely investment decisions - maintaining the level of competition in the market.
In this context, and to better support the future interventions of ICP-ANACOM in this area according to its remit, on 20 June 2008, this Authority launched a public consultation on the regulatory approach to NGA, through which a number of questions were put to the market and its various stakeholders (including operators, users and manufacturers ), particularly questions related to the following aspects:
- Evolution in demand for services and networks and implications in terms of provided bandwidth;
- Technical solutions envisaged for the implementation of NGA and the respective limitations;
- Consequences for present networks (supported over copper pairs) and measures necessary to protect investments made in these networks;
- Models of NGA development and the role of different stakeholders in its deployment - business plans, return on investment and safeguarding competition;
- Role of the State, local and regional initiatives and public-private partnerships;
- Specific regulatory measures: their suitability, necessity and opportunity; development of current wholesale offers of access to conduits, the local loop and bitstream broadband access; and the regime governing access to telecommunications infrastructure in buildings (ITED).
In 2009, approval was given to the report on the public consultation that brings together the analysis of responses and a summary of the position of principle taken by ICP-ANACOM on this topic.
In the context of promoting investment in NGA - a strategic priority set out with the publication of Resolution of the Council of Ministers no 120/2008 of 30 July -, the Government identified the need to mitigate or eliminate barriers to the deployment of networks and to remove barriers to access to existing infrastructure.
In this context, ICP-ANACOM was given the task of identifying the barriers that constrain access to conduits and other infrastructure owned by various entities, including those operating in sectors other than electronic communications and to identify barriers to the construction of conduits, and subsequently to propose measures for reducing such barriers. The work done on these issues was submitted in September 2008.
In accordance with the same Resolution of the Council of Ministers, ICP-ANACOM was also given the task of submitting proposals for concrete measures to be taken, legislative or otherwise, in order to ensure open and effective access by all operators to the network of conduits and other relevant facilities of all entities holding this type of subsoil infrastructure, for purpose of installing next generation networks, and to propose solutions for the elimination or mitigation of vertical barriers to the installation of fibre optic, in a framework based on sharing/pooling of infrastructure in buildings which prevents the first operator in a given building from monopolizing access. These proposals were submitted to the Government by ICP-ANACOM in October 2008.
Following the submission of these document, the Government decided to ask ICP-ANACOM to prepare proposals for legislative measures in the light of its options in this area, which would be submitted in January 2009. This procedure was concluded with the approval and publication of Decree-Law no 123/2009 of 21 May.