KDG slams Telekom’s open cable thrust

[khurramdar]

KDG slams Telekom’s open cable thrust
Written by Jörn Krieger  
Thursday, 11 February 2010 10:06
Germany’s largest cable operator Kabel Deutschland (KDG) has rejected the demands by telco Deutsche Telekom for regulation of the cable market by federal network agency Bundesnetzagentur, thereby opening up the networks to competitors.

Only through KDG’s entry into the telecommunications market in 2005 real competition between infrastructures in the areas of internet and telephony has been created, the Munich-based cable company said in a statement. KDG pointed to ADSL’s dominance in the market for fast internet access, outlining that cable operators currently only had a 10% market share in the broadband market. “In our view, this doesn’t justify regulation, the more so as regulation both in German and EU law is rightly tied to the existence of market domination.”

KDG’s statement refers to comments recently made by Telekom’s CEO René Obermann on submitting cable operators to regulation in order to make their infrastructure accessible to third-party companies. As ADSL market leader, Telekom has to grant competitors access to its broadband network with the conditions being set by Bundesnetzagentur.

© Rapid TV News 2010