Press Release: Telecoms: Commission raises serious doubts about Austrian broadband market definition

The European Commission called on the Austrian telecoms regulator, Rundfunk und Telekom Regulierungs GmbH (RTR), to suspend the adoption of regulatory measures regarding the definition of the Austrian broadband access market, the so call bitstream access market. The Commission had serious doubts as to the compatibility of the provisions defining the Austrian wholesale broadband access market with EU law. In the notification submitted one month ago, RTR has provided insufficient evidence to support its finding that mobile broadband connections can be considered as substitutes to fixed line DSL and cable connections. The Commission also had doubts regarding the scope of RTR's wholesale market definition for bitstream access. The Commission therefore asked RTR not to adopt the measure until the Commission has taken a final decision on RTR's proposal.