Decision on the Price Plans
''PT Network Line Without Subscription''
1. By decision of 17/01/03, ANACOM suspended the offer of PT Comunicações S.A. (PTC), known as ''PT Network Line without Subscription'' (see Suspension of PT Comunicações offer ''PT Network Line without Subscription'' - decision of 17.1.2003https://www.anacom.pt/render.jsp?categoryId=214885).
2. The offer concerns a fixed telephone service modality, which, according to PTC, replaces “the traditional network line subscription tariff by a guaranteed monthly expense that can be converted into traffic”, thereby allowing for an aggregated sale of access and traffic.
3. These price plans (option 1 and option 2), intended for national communications with a fixed or mobile destination, present as essential features a monthly minimum cost of € 21,01, VAT excluded – that can be fully converted into traffic - as well as a single tariff for local, regional and national calls.
4. It should be noted that, pursuant to point a) of paragraph 1 of article 8 of Decree-Law no. 415/98, of 31/12, PT Comunicações, S.A., as an entity with significant market power, is bound to comply with the principle of non-discrimination as far as interconnection offers are concerned, which entails, namely, an obligation to offer the conditions and information applied to its own services, subsidiaries or associated companies, to the interconnection applicants that offer similar services and that are in similar conditions - paragraph 2 of the same article 8.
5. Moreover, paragraph 2 of article 33 of the Regulations for the Operation of the Fixed Telephone Service, approved by Decree-Law no. 474/99, of 8/11, requires of the operators with significant market power the duty of providing similar network access conditions (to the ones they or the respective subsidiary or associate companies enjoy) to all entities that provide similar services and that are on equal footing.
6. The new providers of the telephone fixed service, the market entry of which is facilitated by indirect access, are deprived of the possibility, as to this service provision modality, to present a similar offer. So far, PTC has, solely and exclusively, invoiced and charged the subscription price to its direct clients, and thus, since there is no wholesale provision of network line subscription, the new operators providing services through an indirect access are deprived of the possibility to aggregate subscription and traffic in the same offer, therefore being unable to meet PTC in competitive conditions.
7. NOVIS TELECOM, S.A. submitted ANACOM a presentation concerning this offer, claiming against the respective launching, considering it a serious disadvantage to the fixed telephone service providers that are an alternative to the historic operator.
8. Therefore, bearing in mind:
i. That PT Comunicações, S.A. has significant market power in the interconnection market and in the market of fixed telephone networks or of the fixed telephone service;
ii. That the mentioned entity does not offer the remaining operators the possibility of aggregating subscription and traffic, in compliance with the provisions of point a) of paragraph 1 of article 8 of Decree-Law no. 415/98, of 31/12 and of paragraph 2 of article 33 of the Regulations for the Operation of the Fixed Telephone Service, approved by Decree-Law no. 474/99, of 8/11;
iii. That the operators providing services through an indirect access are deprived of the possibility to present offers that can compete with the offer ''PT Network Line without Subscription'', a situation which constitutes an obstacle to the entry in the market or to the development of those operators;
iv. That, in view of the serious risk that the offer submitted by PT Comunicações, S.A. would severely harm competition, ANACOM determined the provisional suspension of the offer ''PT Network Line without Subscription'', a suspension which expired in the meanwhile, pursuant to point b) of article 85 of the Code of Administrative Procedure;
v. The results of the hearing granted to interested entities as to the offer ''PT Network Line without Subscription'';
the Board of Administration of ANACOM, at the ordinary meeting of 29/05/2003, has determined to maintain the suspension of the offer ''PT Network Line without Subscription'', as long as the grounds for the suspension remain valid, i.e., until PTC presents the remaining operators with the possibility of submitting the same type of offers.
