TKK instructs Telekom Austria to enable broadband services without interference

Press release dated 30 January 2008

Since summer last year, an increasing number of severe disruptions have been reported among the broadband customers of alternative service providers. The complaints included reductions in attainable bandwidths as well as disruptions and interruptions of broadband service. At six different locations in Carinthia, which were investigated in a supervisory procedure arising from a notification from one alternative operator, the Telekom-Control Commission (TKK) identified the new "upstream equipment"¹ recently put into operation by Telekom Austria (TA) as the cause of the disruptions.

With this upstream equipment and the disruptions it caused for the customers of alternative operators, the SMP operator Telekom Austria violated the regulatory obligations imposed by the TKK. In its session on January 28, 2008, the TKK therefore decided to instruct Telekom Austria to reconfigure the upstream equipment in such a way that it can no longer transmit signals in the frequency band used by alternative operators in order to prevent any further disruption of broadband services for the customers of those operators.

"The TKK had to make this decision quickly in order to put a stop to legal violations and to secure competition in the interest of operators and retail customers. The public discussion launched by RTR in the course of a symposium in June 2007 indicates how seriously the TKK and RTR take the topic of copper-wire infrastructure. The industry working group on next generation access (NGA) announced by RTR in the fall of last year is about to hold its first session. Together with the industry, we wish to use this forum to make arrangements and prepare measures so that the use of the local loop – also with regard to new NGA broadband technologies such as VDSL2 – is managed in a sustainable and optimized manner in the interest of competition and the economy," notes Georg Serentschy, managing director of RTR's Telecommunications Division, in emphasizing the significance of NGN/NGA.

¹ This "upstream equipment" refers to digital subscriber line access multiplexers (DSLAMs). 

The TKK's decision can be downloaded from the RTR web site using the link below.