Communiqué de presse

ARCEP submits its draft decisions to the European Commission

Paris, 29 July 2005

Today, Autorité de Régulation des Communications Electroniques et des Postes (ARCEP, formerly called ART) submitted to the European Commission two draft decisions on its relevant market analysis for fixed telephony:

 

- The first concerns retail (access and communications) and wholesale markets (call origination, carriage and call termination), excluding call termination services to alternative fixed operators
- The second concerns the geographic call termination markets of alternative fixed operators


Following the public consultation in June 2005, ARCEP modified a number of elements in its draft decision, whose three main points are as follows:

 

- for the retail markets on which France Telecom has significant market power: exempting France Telecom from having to submit its retail prices for approval

- for the wholesale carriage markets on which France Telecom has significant market power: pricing controls for services offered by France Telecom

- for the wholesale call termination markets of alternative fixed operators on which these operators have significant market power: the obligation to provide access

In order to receive comments on these modifications, ARCEP is also launching a new public consultation on these two draft decisions. Contributions to the consultation must be sent to ARCEP before 15 September 2005 at fixe(@)arcep.fr.

Depending on the observations made by the European Commission and the results of the public consultation, ARCEP plans to adopt its final decisions on these markets in September.