On 20 September 2010 the European Commission issued a Recommendation on regulated access to Next Generation Access Networks (NGA).
The recommendation was prepared with the purpose of enhancing legal certainty, promoting investment, competition and innovation, bearing in mind the development of the single market and of the market for broadband services in particular in the transition to the NGA networks.
The annexes of the recommendation provide detailed information on pricing principles and risk, and on the application of the principle of equivalence for access to the civil engineering infrastructure of the operator with significant market power.
The deployment of NGA networks is likely to lead to important changes in the economics of service provision and the competitive situation. Aphaia’s White Paper ‘Next Generation Access Recommendation and Competition Law Issues’ analyzes the Commission’s attitude towards NGA access regulation, comparing it, when necessary, to general EU competition law doctrine.
