“Agcom has sufficiently justified its decision on the weighted average cost of capital for 2013; Agcom's decision to apply a 3% mark-up was sufficiently justified and does not differ from the methodology used since 2003; the relationship between the monthly LLU and ULS fee, used since 2009, is sufficiently justified”. With these words, BEREC takes a stand in favor of Agcom in relation to the proposal to reduce wholesale ADSL prices requested by Telecom from other operators in the sector for the use of the copper network.
Interviewed by European Commission regarding the request – made in mid-July by Agcom – for a 6,5% cut on the LLU, the body of European regulators of electronic communications therefore defends the work of the Italian Communications Authority and does not consider the doubts justified on the arbitrariness of the new prices proposed, nor on the methodology applied in establishing them. The method used to scale down broadband access prices had been contested by the Digital Agenda Commissioner, Neelie Kroes, who had in particular insisted on Agcom's use of out-of-date market data and analysis and therefore not sufficiently reliable in order to promote competition on an equal footing among all the economic operators concerned. Remaining convinced of the legitimacy of the doubts raised, the European Commission is now studying the analysis of BEREC, and confirms its commitment to finding a common solution to the issue.
In the meantime we have witnessed the important thing agreement of Telefonica with Generali, Mediobanca e Intesa Sanpaolo, an agreement that sees the Iberian group rise to 65% of Telco – holding which controls almost 23% of Telecom - and we went back to talking about network unbundling. A point on which Agcom insists, up to considering, according to what was stated by the Commissioner of the Guarantor Authority Antonio Preto, the possibility of verifying the existence of conditions for a forced spin-off, imposed "as a remedy to guarantee equal access", if Telecom decided not to follow up spontaneously on what was previously announced. With regard to the question, the Chairman of Telecom Italia Franco Bernabé confirmed his commitment to discussions with Agcom and the CDP, maintaining in any case that "the final outcome of the operation is not obvious and, in any case, requires a very long time".
