The companies of the Portugal Telecom Group may provide retail offers that bundle access and telephone traffic insofar as they request that SLRO - subscriber line resale offer - beneficiaries provide billing and collection data for all services rendered, by companies of the PT Group, or by other companies where the services are billed and charged by companies of the PT Group, on accesses with an activated SLRO. ANACOM must also be made aware of such data. According to the decision of the regulatory authority, the price for this billing and collection activity shall be set at 3,75 cents per call, or above, in the case of time-based services; and 3% of the invoice value, in all other cases, a minimum value of 3,74 cents being due for each invoiced item.
The SLRO Reference Proposal must be amended according to the determination of ANACOM dated 15 March, on the conditions for the inclusion of ISDN accesses in the proposal.
In the issued decision, ANACOM laid down also that the PT Group must also comply with applicable obligations, especially cost-orientation of prices, non-discrimination and transparency, in the scope of offers bundling access and traffic.
Companies of the PT Group must amend and publish the reference proposal within 10 working days, according to a large range of alterations set out by the regulatory authority, as regards time limits and prices, among other issues.
ANACOM's decision to allow the companies of the PT Group to provide offers bundling access and traffic arose from the fact that all requirements imposed by the regulatory authority had been met, namely the provision of basic and primary ISDN accesses in the SLRO, which was subject to a decision issued by ANACOM on 15 March. One of the other requirements was that the companies of the PT Group requested of SLRO beneficiary entities that they undertook billing and collection activities for all services rendered, by companies of the PT Group, or by other companies where the services were billed and charged by companies of the PT Group, all issues concerning the price of these services having been dealt with; the third requirement was the effective and efficient provision of the SLRO. In this regard, the regulatory authority considered that the requirement would be met where 150 thousand SLRO accesses had been activated, excluding activations of the PT Group, and by end February, 157 124 SLRO accesses had been activated.
The fact that the SLRO has been effectively and efficiently provided does not mean that the offer should not be progressively improved, taking into account market evolution and dynamics, experience gained and end-users needs.
The existence of a fully functioning Subscriber Line Resale Offer (SLRO) was crucial for the provision by PT of an offer bundling traffic and signature.
In fact, the SLRO enables competitors of the incumbent operator to develop their own retail offers, which an added value for end customers who may enjoy innovative services. New operators may compete with the offers provided by PT, as they are able to provide diversified services that bundle access and telephone traffic.
The regulatory authority intended to ensure this replicability of offers before granting PT the permission to provide bundled offers, as it is now ensured that all operators may compete under the same conditions.
Consult:
- Conditions for the inclusion of ISDN accesses in the SLRO https://www.anacom.pt/render.jsp?contentId=467256
