Page 112 - SAMENA Trends - August 2019

REGULATORY & POLICY UPDATES SAMENA TRENDS

Telekom Deutschland (TD), the domestic operating has announced the implementation of seamless call
unit of Deutsche Telekom (DT), has enabled maximum handover between its mobile 2G and 3G networks
fixed broadband speeds of 250Mbps for a further in Germany, Austria, Poland, the Netherlands and
877,000 lines nationwide. The additions bring the total the Czech Republic. The move will eliminate call
Germany number of 250Mbps-enabled lines to over 23 million. interruptions when crossing national borders and
The company also announced that the number of lines
changing networks. Talks with providers from
with maximum 100Mbps connection speeds using neighboring countries, including France, Switzerland,
VDSL vectoring technology has been increased by an Denmark and Belgium, are ongoing. ‘We connect
additional 65,000, bringing total household coverage of Europe and make mobile phone calls even easier.
the rates to 29.5 million. Especially in the holiday season, millions of customers
(August 9, 2019) telegeography.com are already benefiting from this,’ commented CEO of
Telekom Deutschland Dirk Wossner.
German telecoms company Deutsche Telekom (DT) (August 7, 2019) telegeography.com

Iceland’s Post and Telecom Administration (PTA, or No.18/2019.
Post-og Fjarskiptastofnun [PFS]) has announced the (August 14, 2019) telegeography.com
cancellation of Yellow Mobile’s 2600MHz concession.
In a press release the regulator noted that, with the The telecoms watchdog Post and Telecom
Iceland license having been issued to the cellco in July 2017, Administration (PTA) has opened a public consultation
it was required to have started using the spectrum
on its draft decision outlining the mobile and fixed
within twelve months but failed to do so. According termination rates for the 2020 calendar year. The
to the PTA, it had subsequently granted Yellow Mobile regulator proposes that from 1 January 2020 the
several deadline extensions to allow it to fulfil its mobile termination rate (MTR) in the country should
obligations, despite which the cellco has still yet to increase to ISK1.02 (USD0.00823) per minute, up from
offer connectivity via its 2×10MHz block of 2600MHz ISK0.96 per minute (in effect until 31 December 2019).
spectrum. As a result of the continued failure to fulfil For fixed termination, the rate will remain at its current
the terms of its license, the PTA has now confirmed level (ISK0.12). The PTA has invited comments on its
the concession has now been revoked by Decision draft decision until 30 August.(August 14, 2019) telegeography.com

India’s planned spectrum sale is unlikely to take Industry warned the high reserve price set for the 5G
place until early 2020 as the Department of auction would put additional downward pressure on
Telecommunications (DoT) hasn’t finalized the pricing mobile operators’ already sinking ARPU and slow
or how much spectrum will be allocated. In addition, growth of the sector.
India the newspaper said draft documents outlining the (August 27, 2019)The Economic Times
terms and conditions have not been completed. The
DoT scheduled the auction, the country’s first since India’s Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has
October 2016, to be held before the end of 2019. The asked the Registrars of Companies (RoCs) in Delhi
government proposed auctioning off as much as and Mumbai to halt the merger of Bharti Airtel and the
3,000MHz of spectrum across eight bands, including consumer mobile division of Tata Teleservices Limited
two 5G bands, potentially its largest auction ever. A DoT (TTSL), as the regulator had not given its written
representative told ET: “The timeline may be delayed approval to the transaction. Airtel announced that it
by around a month.” The department announced in had completed the merger in July this year, after the
December 2018 it would wait until the second half Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal
of 2019 to auction additional spectrum, giving some (TDSAT) rejected the DoT’s demands on the merger
ground to mobile operators’ plea to delay the sale due to and instructed the ministry to provide the duo with the
high levels of debt and an ongoing price war. Vodafone last of the approvals needed to go ahead with the tie-
Idea urged the DoT to push back future auctions until up. Unnamed industry sources were cited as saying
2020, arguing demand for new spectrum will grow that the DoT will challenge the merger in the Supreme
only once the 5G ecosystem is in place, while Bharti Court on various grounds, including the companies’
Airtel executives previously said they would sit out any competition of the merger through a TDSAT ruling,
early auction of 5G spectrum due to a lack of clarity which the ministry claimed ‘is in contravention … of the
over business cases and a shortage of compatible approved merger scheme’. A spokesperson for Airtel
handsets. In early August, the Confederation of Indian explained that ‘both parties have operationalized the

112 AUGUST 2019