ANACOM has concluded that the market of transit services, the geographical scope of which is the national territory and which includes transit services provided by an operator by transporting calls originated and terminated in a network other that its own, presents a competitive situation. ANACOM did not encounter any present or foreseeable market failures in the analysis carried out, and thus it was decided not to define the transit market as a relevant market for purposes of ex-ante regulation, and also to suppress obligations imposed upon PT Comunicações (PTC) in the market of transit services in the fixed public telephone network.
The ex-ante regulatory obligations which fell upon PTC in the scope of the prior regulatory framework shall be suppressed within 50 working days from the date of approval of the determination of ICP-ANACOM. The application of current legislation and of competition mechanisms shall be sufficient to rectify any failure which may arise in the future, in the view of the sector regulator.
There are currently four operators that provide transit services: OniTelecom, Novis Telecom, Jazztel - Portugal and PT Comunicações. According to information gathered by ANACOM, the market shares for 2004 as regards net costs, that is, excluding the amount paid by the transit operator to the destination operator, concerning call termination and with cost accounting, billing and settlement services, are estimated at 9% for PTC and at 63%, 23% and 5% for the remaining operators, respectively.
Nevertheless, there are market forces which would condition a hypothetical significant market power, specially the direct interconnection among the main operators, and the existence of alternative operators. Moreover, it is not foreseeable that operators currently providing the service discontinue the provision thereof, in the absence of ex-ante regulation. Likewise, there is also little chance for collusion among operators providing the transit service.
The market of transit services in the fixed public telephone network, market 10, represents 1% of the total amount of interconnected traffic, having regard to narrowband markets, being unlikely that their relevance shall increase significantly.
Consult:
- Market 10 - Transit services in the public fixed telephone network https://www.anacom.pt/render.jsp?categoryId=152282
