RTR status report on unbundling: Unbundling on successful path, shows great potential

Press release dated 12 April 2005

Approximately six years have passed since the Telekom-Control Commission first issued orders to provide alternative operators with access to unbundled local loops. "With its status report on unbundling, which was recently released in our publications series, RTR has drawn up an interim overview of experience with unbundling in Austria to date,“ comments Georg Serentschy, Managing Director of RTR's Telecommunications Division, in his presentation of the new publication. "Our goal was to present the current state of unbundling, as well as a critical survey of factors which contribute to the success or hinder the progress of this form of network access."

Unbundling available for 54% of Austrian households

As regards the coverage situation in Austria, 54% of Austrian households could already be supplied using unbundled lines due to the unbundling partners' rollout. If we break the coverage values down by Austrian province, severe regional differences appear. Nearly all households in Vienna could potentially choose another provider in addition to Telekom Austria and UPC. The province of Vorarlberg also has a very high potential coverage level (over 75%). The other provinces are in the middle range, with the province of Burgenland at the very bottom (potential coverage level: 11%).

"These facts show that unbundling holds enormous latent potential: The annual growth rate in the number of unbundled lines in Austria came to approximately 170% in 2004, but this growth is taking place at a very low level," commented Serentschy on the development of the market. "Even if Telekom Austria is already serving the market well due to its first mover advantage, differentiation at the product level as well as focusing on special customer segments are also opening up opportunities for other companies to realize promising business models.“

The 2005 status report on unbundling is available (in German) on the RTR web site.