EU ANTITRUST: HOT TOPICS & NEXT STEPS

Prague, Czechia

EU ANTITRUST: HOT TOPICS & NEXT STEPS 2022

Telecommunications Infrastructure Sharing as an Opportunity for Effective Deployment of Very High Capacity Networks Inga Kawka 1 , Łukasz Kozera 2 Jagiellonian University 1 , Chair of European Law, Faculty of Law and Administration, ul. Olszewskiego 2, Kraków, 31-007 Pedagogical University of Krakow 2 , Institute of Law and Economics, ul. Podchorążych 2, Kraków, 30-084 Poland e-mail 1, 2 : inga.kawka@uj.edu.pl, lukasz.kozera@up.krakow.pl

Abstract The objective of promoting the widespread deployment and take-up of very high capacity networks is at the core of the EU’s ambition towards a gigabit society. Infrastructure sharing can be instrumental for this deployment by reducing costs, and risk of deployment, reducing environmental impact and ensuring efficient use of spectrum and network assets. In the same time infrastructure sharing can reduce incentives to invest and ability to compete between providers of electronic communications networks and increase coordination between telecom market participants, which presents an obvious risk relating to tacit collusion as well as potential breaches of competition law. The research goal of the paper is to determine whether the EU provides a coherent regulatory approach balancing the potential benefits and drawbacks of infrastructure sharing in the electronic communication sector and whether this approach ensures the development of very high-speed connectivity in the EU. The subject of the analysis is the European Electronic Communications Code (EECC), which provides the obligations to share infrastructure (Article 61(3– 4) of the EECC) and promote co-investments in very high capacity networks (Article 76 of the EECC). Keywords: European Electronic Communications Code, infrastructure sharing, very high capacity networks JEL Classification: K210, K230

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