The Spanish Telecommunications Market Commission (CMT) has approved several proposals for the regulation of fixed telephony relating to access, phone traffic and call origin. According to Telecompaper, operators have been given a month in which to comment, after which the National Competition Commission will file a final report.
The CMT wants to liberalise fixed telephony and its prices, meaning Telefonica will be freed of some obligations as the incumbent and subject to competition regulation like all Spanish service providers. This includes dropping the €59.5 access charge per line, allowing Telefonica to set the price.
CMT intends to continue to set the maximum annual increases for the monthly subscription fee of €13.97 monthly fee, which covers the cost of maintaining phone lines, but is prepared to let Telefonica reduce the subscription fee if it wishes.
However, the regulator plans to prevent Telefonica from indulging in anti-competitive practices, such as squeezing margin or inappropriate packaging. It will also be obliged to provide transparent accounting, accounting separation and advanced notification.
For the fixed telephony wholesale market, the CMT has approved a proposed regulation for call origination. This enables an alternative operator to deal with fixed line calls through interconnection with Telefonica's network.
The regulator plans to maintain the obligation of meeting reasonable access requests, as well as Telefonica's obligation of providing two wholesale offers - the reference interconnection offer and the wholesale access to the telephone line.