Oftel publishes market influence determination guidelines

United Kingdom

On 17th March, Oftel published new guidelines that set out how Oftel will determine whether a telecoms company has market influence. Factors it will take into account include ease of access to the markets, trends in market share and concentration, and pricing behaviour.

Once market influence is established, operators will be obliged to observe a number of licence conditions. These include a requirement to publish information on charges, terms and conditions if requested to do so by Oftel, refrain from unduly discriminating against other operators and in the case of mobile operators, supply service providers with airtime over their network.

OFTEL anticipates that these guidelines will be reviewed on a regular basis to take into account developments in the telecommunications market and the legislative framework, as well as EU and UK competition law developments in this sector.

The guidelines are available on Oftel's website at http://www.oftel.gov.uk.

(Oftel Press Release 16/00)