The European Commission is due to release guidelines on how network operators should set wholesale access prices to copper line infrastructure to allow them to accommodate a costly roll-out of newer networks made of fibre-optic cables.
EU regulators have recently given their blessing to a spate of price rises for copper access, most notably CMT in Spain and AGCOM in Italy, in spite of firmly-worded advice from the European Commission not to do so (see 'Background').
The pending struggle over pricing basically boils down to a fight over companies' potential market prowess, because optical fibre carries more services over longer distances and deliver them in less time than copper.
"This one is becoming a real fistfight," an industry source who wished to remain anonymous told EurActiv.
Battle lines drawn
The large incumbent telecoms firms, for their part, argue that copper prices should go up to cushion their investments in rolling out fibre networks. Meanwhile, those representing smaller players, which rent the copper lines owned by their larger rivals, argue that access prices should be lowered to shepherd in the transition to fibre.
In Brussels large telecommunications companies' interests are usually represented by the European Telecommunications and Network Operators (ETNO), while the European Competitive Telecommunication Association (ECTA) speaks on behalf of their smaller rivals.
The two sides are known opponents on most regulatory issues and had butted heads since 2008 on the long-awaited Next Generation Access recommendation, which finally emerged in September 2010.
Both recently commissioned studies which came to conflicting conclusions on what should be done about copper access prices to pave the way for a fibred future.
Driving down copper prices would tarnish the business case for investing in fibre by encouraging customers to stay on copper, argues a report commissioned by ETNO.
ECTA's report, on the other hand, argues that copper charges should go down because high copper charges will not push telcoms firms to invest in fibre, in that they could still rely on legacy copper lines to make profits.
The report adds that current access prices, estimated at an average of €8.55 per month, are based on an older pricing model when incumbents were replacing the copper lines regularly. But given the interest in fibre, this is no longer the case.
Incumbents maintain that they face an uncertain future, with take-up for high bandwidth fibre not yet guaranteed and uncertainty about how quickly fibre could reap returns.
Jury still out
BEUC, a Brussels-based consumer group, warns against any spikes in copper access prices as these would be passed on to users.
The group's economic analyst, Monika Stajnarova, points to Spain and Italy as "alarming cases" which have set a poor precedent and urges EU policymakers to take a stronger stance against access price hikes.
The European Commission is currently in the process of assessing both sides of the argument and the result of its analysis should appear in the form of a recommendation in the early autumn.
