The Commission for Communications Regulation (ComReg) yesterday afternoon ruled that incumbent operator Eircom has “significant market power” in the wholesale interconnection market. As a result it is planning to impose a number of obligations on Eircom.
In the telecoms market, interconnection services permit interoperability between competing telephone networks. In broader terms wholesale interconnections consists of three elements: call origination, call transit and call termination.
In all of these three elements, ComReg has ruled Eircom has significant enough market power and under the EU regulatory framework it must impose obligations on how it conducts itself in this market.
ComReg said the obligations being imposed on Eircom already exist under Eircom’s Reference Interconnect Offer. ComReg said it is also imposing price control obligations on other licensed operators in order to address competition concerns in the call termination market.
By John Kennedy
