The Swiss telecoms market
The Swiss telecoms market has seen significant activity on the wholesale services front in 2009 and the first half of 2010. The regulator, the Federal Communications Commission (ComCom), has for the first time defined conditions wire duct for various access services including LLU, bitstream access, leased lines, and co-use of cable ducts.
With the amendment of the telecoms law, implemented from January 2010, the ComCom is focusing its efforts to revise wholesale pricing by cable duct obligating Swisscom to lower its prices. So far it has achieved a cable trunking fair amount of success on this front, with the reduction in cable duct charges (implemented in December 2009) and leased line tariffs (in March 2010). We expect that the regulation of access markets together with the reduced wholesale tariffs would increase competition in the country.
The ComCom is also taking steps to maintain the competitive scenario in the mobile market. To this effect, it rejected the merger request of Sunrise and Orange to ensure that the Swiss mobile market does not become a duopoly, believing the wiring duct merger could have negatively affected competition.