Saturday, March 1, 2008

EC Insisting on Fiber Unbundling

Light Reading published an article on the EC's position on FTTH unbundling. European Commissioner Viviane Reding has stated that regulatory holidays are not on the agenda. She does not support the unbundling exemptions that several European carriers have requested for their fiber build outs.

One issue with this is that the EC has not figured out how to unbundle PON, since PON permits a single fiber loop to be shared by multiple subscribers.

The EC has to face tough issues to follow through with fiber unbundling. The sharing of PON loops is only one of them. The more important issue is to what degree fiber unbundling will inhibit deployment. Telefonica in Spain, in particular, has taken the position that it will not deploy fiber if it has to provide competitive access.

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