The Path to Competition for Telecommunications in Germany

Abstract

Will telecommunications in Germany remain imprisoned by its own history? Did the legislature open the prison door in vain when it lifted the telecommunications monopoly? Have the decades of imprisonment rendered it too weak to stand on its own two feet? This is how telecommunications in Germany is portrayed by many¹, including its regulatory authority². The legislature rightfully exercises more care. Instead of imposing the transition to competition from above; it restricts itself to a tailor-made correction of the specific competitive problems of the transition (I). This particularly applies to the heavily-disputed case surrounding the right of a new provider to unbundled access to the local loop belonging to Telekom (II).