Half way separation in Sweden
Europe Travelogue – Greetings from Stockholm
The Swedish Government has so far ignored the request from its regulator PTS for the functional separation of TeliaSonera across all technology platforms. Instead, TeliaSonera has lobbied the government to get functional separation restricted to its PSTN only. This does not really make a lot of sense, as the incumbent has already voluntarily started this process and ULL is available. True the company continues to misuse its dominant position, but in a country leading the world in broadband developments it is strange that it falls short of making broadband delivery technology neutral.
Telefónica in Spain is another incumbent operator which has been very successful in manipulating the country and the government. They have been able to successfully make the European Commission the villain, blaming it for wanting to split up the country’s national telecoms ‘treasure’, Telefónica. The country is in uproar and, thanks to misinformation, largely supports the ‘poor’ national incumbent from facing functional separation any time soon.
For more information, see separate reports: