Opinion of the French competition authority n°11-A-20 dated December 15, 2011, regarding the dissemination of data regarding radio sites of mobile operators
The French competition authority (“Autorité de la concurrence”) gave recently an opinion about the mobile telecom operators’ strategy of deployment.
The Autorité de la concurrence, in its Opinion No. 11-A-20 dated December 15, 2011, recommends that the National Frequency Agency (ANFR) should take any precautions "to ensure that operators do not know the strategy of deployment of their competitors and accordingly those new entrants are not disadvantaged."
The Autorité de la concurrence had been asked for recommendation by the Minister of Economy, Finance and Industry in a letter dated August 4, 2011 in which the minister questioned in particular about the potential impact "that disclosure of such data could have on competition between mobile operators."
The role of ANFR is mainly to coordinate and enable the establishment of radio station in France as well as ensuring the best use of available sites that respect for "limits public exposure to electromagnetic fields".
In its opinion, the Autorité de la concurrence reminds that, in the course of its missions, ANFR gather information from users of frequencies and then disseminate them through the following:
- The procedure COMSIS which consists of an exchange of information among users of frequencies in order to give the possibility to allow the installation of a radio site ;
- The application CARTORADIO which lists the publication of a subsequent number of Internet data mainly for informing the public.
In addition, Law No. 78-753 dated 17 July 1978 on access to administrative documents also gives the possibility to have an access to such information.
Thus, mobile operators are able to know precisely what will be the strategies of deployment of their competitors.
In a second step, the Autorité de la concurrence analyzes the compatibility of the exchange of information on radio sites of mobile operators with the rules of competition law.
Thus, the Autorité de la concurrence considers that the process for the exchange of information concerning sites from mobile radio operators of the procedure COMSIS established by the ANFR "is likely to alter the competition rules." The Autorité de la concurrence considers that it makes a possible artificial harmonization of network deployment strategies and is thus likely to create "barriers to entry for new operators."
The Autorité de la concurrence is considering several possibilities regarding potentials developments of competitive risks. The Autorité de la concurrence therefore recommends to:
- Give the possibility for new entrants to get an access to the same degree of information: the Autorité de la concurrence therefore recommends that an equal access to consolidated information concerning the radio sites of mobile operators shall be guaranteed to all operators.
- Supervise or restrict the dissemination of information to mobile operators in order to allow operators to guarantee that they can "determine their deploying policy independently" ;
- Limit the access to strategic information gathered by competing operators ;
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Autorite_de_la_concurrence_Opinion_11-A-20_01.pdf
