Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

EU Wants German Telekom Fiber Open to All

Posted by Zonk on from the don't-bogart-the-photons dept.

High Fibre writes "The European Commission has informed Germany that a new law protecting Deutsche Telekom's fiber optic network is illegal. Deutsche Telekom is in the process of rolling out a new fiber network that will serve the 50 largest German cities by the end of 2007 and convinced the German parliament to pass a law that would keep the competition from being able to lease its lines. The EC says that's a no-go: 'The EC believes that the German law would make it more difficult for competitors to enter the German market. More importantly, it runs contrary to an EC-endorsed recommendation that Deutsche Telekom be forced to open up its network — including the new fiber deployment — to competitors.'"

4 of 100 comments (clear)

  1. I never know how to feel about things like this by realmolo · · Score: 5, Insightful

    On the one hand, if you paid to build the network, it *is* yours, and you should get exclusive access to it. Why should your competitors get a "free ride"?

    On the other hand, you don't really want a bunch of fiber running everywhere, when there's PLENTY already in the ground. Building "duplicate" networks is a waste of resources, and the construction is disruptive.

    Honestly, at this point, I think that "the government" should be building the networks with tax money, and letting the various providers lease it for a reasonable price. Bandwidth/communications has really become the backbone of the modern economy in a lot of ways. It should be treated almost like the highway system. The only downside is the bureaucracy that will rise up around it all. But I think that, overall, it would be a better situation.

    1. Re:I never know how to feel about things like this by pubjames · · Score: 5, Insightful

      On the one hand, if you paid to build the network, it *is* yours, and you should get exclusive access to it.

      Although that sounds common sense, in actual fact the fibre network will travel almost entirely over public property (under pavements, roads etc), and so we the people (through our government) can put whatever conditions we want on it.

  2. The bad car analogies, they do nothing! by spun · · Score: 4, Insightful

    You drive your car over public streets, you've got to let the government (i.e. the people) tell you how you can use your car.

    There, fixed that for ya'.

    --
    - None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
  3. Missing the larger issue by gr8_phk · · Score: 4, Informative

    Much of slashdot is missing the larger issue here. The EC is telling Germany what to do. A couple years ago I warned a German co-worker friend of mine that they must keep an eye on that whole EU/EC/E-whatever or it will try to become a single government over all of Europe. "Oh no, that won't happen" it was all just about having a common currency and other such nice things - the power will remain with the member sta.. err countries. This sure looks like federalism vs states rights all over again. Let's hope the EU doesn't have to have a civil war over it. This isn't just a German issue, all of Europe should be upset about it.