Ft­tH/B roll­out – con­sul­ta­tion

The Bundesnetzagentur has launched a consultation to determine how regulation can support an accelerated rollout of fibre access networks. The consultation document deals with "Issues of price regulation for FttH/B-based wholesale products in the context of the rollout of high-capacity fibre infrastructures".

The quickening process of digitisation and networking of economy and society plays a major role in shaping the innovative capacity and competitiveness of Germany as a location for business and industry and in determining the communication and participation options available to citizens. The basis for this profound change is the provision of futureproof, high-capacity telecommunications infrastructure to all customers throughout Germany. This is why the creation of a gigabit fibre network or a gigabit-enabled infrastructure by 2025 is being promoted by both the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) in its programme Digitale Strategie 2025 (Digital Strategy 2025) and by the German Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure (BMVI) in the recently adopted key issues paper Zukunftsoffensive Gigabit-Deutschland (Future initiative Gigabit Germany).

To realise this goal, a regulatory environment which promotes investment and innovation and provides incentives for companies to take investment risks is needed. The Bundesnetzagentur shares the view that, in order to achieve this goal, alternative approaches to access and price regulation must be developed and discussed on a timely basis with market participants and interested parties in a transparent and open process.

Against this backdrop, this consultation document seeks to initiate a discussion about the ways in which regulation can contribute to adequately taking account of the considerable amounts of investment costs required for and the uncertainty associated with the FttH/B rollout by granting greater degrees of freedom while, at the same time, safeguarding the achieved level of competition. The aim of this public consultation process is to enhance the transparency and predictability of regulation and actively provide impetus for the expedient further development and flexibilisation of regulatory approaches, with a view to realising the objectives of expanding gigabit networks in the best possible way and of promoting competition in the best interest of users.

To this end, a consultation document has been drawn up to address issues relating to price regulation of FttH/B-based wholesale access products with a view to rollout of high-capacity fibre infrastructures. This consultation closed on April 26th 2017. A courtesy translation of the consultation document is available below:

Consultation document FttH/B rollout (Courtesy translation) (pdf / 676 KB)

Contact: 111-postfach@bnetza.de