Telecom must open vacuum tubes for five years under fixed conditions

The German Federal Network Agency has finalized the regulatory framework allowing competitors to lease Telekom’s passive infrastructure, such as ducts and poles, for five years under fixed conditions. This decision marks a key step toward enabling alternative providers to accelerate fiber-optic network expansion, particularly in underserved areas. The agency published detailed contractual terms alongside standard offers, setting clear rules for how rival companies can access Telekom’s assets. These measures aim to prevent the feared dual network rollout and support competition by ensuring transparency and fair access. The groundwork for this regulation was laid in the summer of 2022, when the agency mandated the opening of Telekom’s physical facilities. This move sparked intense debate within the market and led to legal challenges that eventually reached the European Court of Justice and the Cologne Administrative Court, both of which upheld the requirement. In parallel, negotiations over pricing continued, with final rental rates for ducts and poles being established in June 2024, effective retroactively from early 2024. Under the new regulations, competing firms will have guaranteed access to Telekom’s infrastructure for a minimum of five years, during which the dominant player may not unilaterally alter the terms. The contract outlines strict transparency requirements, including quarterly disclosure of available capacities through the central information office of the federal government. Additionally, the agency limits Telekom’s ability to block capacity based on alleged internal needs, requiring the company to provide detailed proof of its own expansion plans and to make reserved capacities visible in the infrastructure map. Reservations for Telekom’s own fiber build-out must be supported by rigorous documentation and fixed deadlines. If the company fails to meet these deadlines, penalties apply. Specifically, if Telekom blocks free ducts due to internal demand, it must demonstrate a fully budgeted expansion plan and disclose reserved capacities in the infrastructure map. For evaluating competitor requests, there is a 20-day deadline. Furthermore, the company must actually implement declared internal needs within set timeframes, otherwise the reservation expires. A penalty system applies if Telekom misses deadlines, with escalating fines ranging from approximately 500 to 1,000 euros per delay stage. If the company fails to meet guarantees for more than 5 percent of requests per quarter, recurring penalties and oversight procedures involving administrative fines and compensation claims from blocked competitors may follow. The regulation also extends protections to subsidiaries such as Glasfaser NordWest and GlasfaserPlus, which are required to comply with the same standards. While the industry association representing digital and telecommunications providers welcomed the decision as a long-overdue milestone for greater planning security and faster fiber deployment, it criticized the seven-year process as excessively lengthy. The association called for practical, non-discriminatory conditions and a swift application of the rules to joint ventures operated by Telekom. Meanwhile, the Association for Broadband Communication (Breko) remains generally skeptical about the duct access initiative, preferring the open-access approach via bitstream. However, it acknowledged improvements for competitors, especially the stricter hurdles for Telekom to deny access under the guise of internal need.