June 22, 2020

The draft Guidelines were published for consultation during BEREC’s 43^rd ordinary meeting on 16 June 2020.

Under Article 61(3) of the European Electronic Communications Code (EECC), National Regulatory Authorities (NRAs) may impose obligations, upon reasonable request and regardless of any findings of significant market power, to grant access to wiring and cables and associated facilities inside buildings or up to the first concentration or distribution point as determined by the NRAs. Access obligations may be imposed on electronic communication network providers or owners of such network elements, where replication of the network elements concerned would be economically inefficient or physically impracticable.

The policy principle behind Article 61(3) is the promotion of sustainable competition in the interest of end users, connectivity, and efficient investment, in particular in very high capacity networks, by giving NRAs the power to ensure access to non-replicable infrastructure where justified and proportionate, i.e. where bottlenecks would not allow an efficient operator to replicate network elements.

The Guidelines define the criteria on key aspects of Article 61(3) and inform on how these criteria need to be applied. The document has been published for public consultation, which closes on 31 July 2020. To access the Guidelines and consultation, click here.