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Italian regulator cuts wholesale broadband prices
2013-07-12 09:00:00| Telecompaper Headlines
(Telecompaper) Italian regulator Agcom has lowered the cost of local loop unbundling on Telecom Italia's network for 2013. The service will cost EUR 8.68 per line per month, down from EUR 9.28. Wholesale line rental was also lowered to EUR 11.14 from EUR 11.70 a month, and bitstream access was cut to EUR 15.14 from EUR 19.50 a month. Telecom Italia said that if the draft decision is confirmed it will lose around EUR 110 million in annual revenues. The operator said the decision was not in line with European Commission recommendations or the recent trend for higher or stable LLU rates. It may also put at risk its plan to spin off the fixed-line network as a separate company, the operator said. The decision must still go to the EC for comment before taking effect. Agcom said it aims to announce a draft decision on fibre network access in September. This should lead to a decision setting copper and fibre wholesale access prices for the period 2014-2016, taking into account the EC's latest recommendation on wholesale broadband access. The regulator is also conducting a preliminary investigation of Telecom Italia's proposed separation of its fixed network. Depending on the results, expected within a month, it will decide whether to integrate the analysis of the network separation in its broader market investigations.
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Category:Telecommunications