German Regulator Cuts Loop Access Charges

Germany's official Regulatory Authority for Telecommunications and Post (RegTP) announced two important decisions on charges for access to the local loop.



The first decision approved new one-off provisioning and termination charges, effective 1-July-2004. For the most frequently required variant, simple transfer of a two-wire copper pair without work at the end customer's, competitors will be required to pay a provisioning charge of EUR 47.97. The new fee represents a 15% drop from the previous rate and is 35% percent less than the charge Deutsche Telekom had filed for.



The second decision fixed the charges for shared access to the local loop, known as line sharing. From 1 July 2004 a monthly rental of EUR 2.43 will be payable for access to the higher frequency portion of the line, thus granting Deutsche Telekom's request.



Matthias Kurth, RegTP President, said "the significantly lower prices that today's decisions have brought about will further boost competition in the local market. In the last few months in particular, we have noticed a clear increase in the number of loop rentals."http://www.regtp.de/