ANACOM's regulatory intervention in the wholesale market for call origination on the public telephone network provided at a fixed location for the provision of retail telephone services supported by indirect access (pre-selection or call-by-call selection) or the wholesale line reference offer (WLRO) is no longer necessary. Use of indirect access and the WLRO has become less important, as alternative operators have been increasingly investing in their own infrastructure; this has contributed to increased competition in the market.
Since this market does not meet the three criteria providing for ex-ante regulation, set out in the European Commission Recommendation on Relevant Markets, the market will no longer be subject to regulation, and consequently, MEO will no longer be subject to the regulatory obligations imposed on it.
MEO will only be subject, on a temporary basis, to the price control obligation, in the form and values currently applicable; this obligation can only be lifted 18 months following the final decision on this market. During this transitional period, all the conditions currently in force are to be maintained for the accesses already provided, but the company is not obliged to provide new accesses subsequent to ANACOM's approval of the final decision.
The final draft decision will now be notified to the European Commission.
It is recalled that ANACOM has already deregulated the wholesale market for call origination on the public telephone network provided at a fixed location enabling provision of special services supported by non-geographic numbering.
With this decision, the market formerly designated as market 2 (wholesale market for call origination on the public telephone network provided at a fixed location), which is now no longer part of the European Commission's list of relevant markets, is completely deregulated. The European Commission considers only four markets as relevant: Wholesale call termination on individual public telephone networks provided at a fixed location (market 1); Wholesale voice call termination on individual mobile networks (market 2); Wholesale local access provided at a fixed location (market 3a) and Wholesale central access at a fixed location for mass-market products (market 3b); and Wholesale high-quality access provided at a fixed location (market 4).
Consult:
- Notification to the European Commission on the market of fixed origination for retail services https://www.anacom.pt/render.jsp?contentId=1458585
- Consultation on the wholesale market for call origination on the public telephone network provided at a fixed location for the provision of retail telephone services https://www.anacom.pt/render.jsp?contentId=1433574
