Germany is exploring all the formulas at its disposal to provide operators with the infrastructure necessary to deploy fibre along its entire length. One of the latest measures is to force Deutsche Telekom to hand over its empty pipes to Deutsche Glasfaser.
Deploy the as much fiber as possible To be able to offer service to practically the entire national territory is one of the common objectives shared by most of the European Union countries. In Spain, for example, one of the great challenges is to bring the fiber network to the rural zones to be able to offer the same service to all its customers, regardless of their distance from urban centres.
In Germany, the Cologne Administrative Court has issued a ruling and ordered Deutsche Telekom to grant Deutsche Glasfaser access to the empty pipes that the German operator has in its telecommunications network.
A conflict that comes from afar
Among the different empty pipes that it has Deutsche Telekom, Deutsche Glasfaser requested access to only two routes that pass through two municipalities that were of interest to the second company. In March of this year, the Federal Network Agency had already stated that Telekom could not deny access to the network that it subsidizes, citing problems of “lack of capacity” to deploy the necessary infrastructure on the part of the operator DG.
Furthermore, the statement also stated that since Deutsche Telekom could not consider requesting financial compensation for the use of these pipelines. This is an infrastructure that the German operator was able to develop using the various subsidies that were granted at the time to carry out this deployment, although it did not take advantage of the opportunity to provide greater coverage to all the residents in the area.
However, the explanations of the Federal Network Agency did not convince Deutsche Telekom, which chose to escalate the conflict and file a urgent appeal against the above decision. However, this motion was unsuccessful, as it was rejected by the court. after having studied the case.
The German legal framework
The German Telecommunications Act The company states that fibre network operators that have used public funds to build their infrastructure must grant other telecommunications companies open access to the network so that they can serve their own customers through it. Deutsche Telekom therefore has no option to refuse this, despite the appeals it has lodged.
In the case in question, the Federal Network Agency has already made its position known, forcing Deutsche Telekom to comply with the current legal framework. The court’s decision has therefore only served to confirm the position of the body and to push the German operator to accept the ruling.
