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Participants representing both local loop owners and companies requesting access met in Milan to discuss the status of local loop unbundling in Europe. The conference, which was organised by ETNO, (the European Telecommunications Network Operator's Association) represented 45 major operators from 35 countries.
However, while it was agreed at the conference that LLU is continuing at a realistic pace, operators also agreed that it would not be the most popular option to address the mass market for high-speed Internet access. It said that LLU should not be seen as a "magic wand" to increase Internet penetration in Europe.
The aim of the conference was to evaluate the progress made so far in member states in implementing the local loop unbundling regulation, which came into force in January. ETNO said that the key role for LLU in Europe would be to provide the impetus for the launch of good quality, commercial, DSL service.
A local loop is the wired connection from a telephone company's central location to homes and businesses. Generally speaking, in Europe the local loops have been controlled by the older telephone companies that established telephone services in their home nations, Eircom and British Telecom being two examples.
In May the telecoms regulator in Ireland set out further guidelines, including service level agreements, for LLU here. The issue has long since been a contentious one in Ireland, with Eircom currently controlling the local loop.
The ODTR document released in May set out further guidelines, including service level agreements, for Ireland's local loop unbundling.
At that time, Esat said it welcomed the ODTR's determination of LLU Service Levels and penalties payable to Esat if Eircom fails to deliver to those service levels. The company went on to say that it was unclear whether the penalties to be placed on Eircom will be a sufficient commercial imperative to force them to comply.
Although some debate on the issue continues in Ireland, many believe that unbundling would allow competing companies to offer a wider variety of services and should result in lower telecommunications costs for Irish customers.
In a separate document in April, the ODTR set prices for access to Eircom's network and directed changes to the company's original reference access offer. However, other operators, including Esat have expressed concern at the slow progress of LLU in Ireland.
The ETNO said that the issue not just unique to Ireland.
"It's something we've heard at a European level, Local Loop Unbundling is a political thing," a spokesperson for ETNO told ElectricNews.Net. "Criticising traditional operators for not unbundling is unrealistic. It takes a lot of time, effort and money to do it and there often isn't even a business model there. Spain has totally unbundled the local loop and no other companies are willing to take it on. Maybe it's better to use alternative networks."
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