Broadband regulation in Denmark
24. September 2009
TRIS workshop
Tomas Skov Lauridsen
National IT and Telecom Agency, Denmark
What am I going to talk about?
1.
2.
3.
Brief overview of the market
Broadband regulation in Denmark with
focus on fibre
Proposed regulated access to TDC cable
network
Broadband - technologies
Most of the broadband
subscriptions sold in
Denmark are xDSL
connections.
Cable modem
subscriptions is the
second most common
subscription.
FTTH subscriptions still
make up a rather small
part of the total number of
subscriptions though this
share is growing.

1.400.000
1.246.737
1.200.000
1.000.000
800.000
538.861
600.000
400.000
200.000
87.051
123.555
21.831
1.431
4.174
15.265
FTTx
WLL
WiFi
WiMAX
1.380
0
xDSL
Cable
modem
FTTH
LAN
Others
Broadband – Retail market
situation
The market for broadband
subscriptions is dominated by
TDC (incumbent).
Fullrate
3,7%
More than half of all
broadband subscriptions were Telia Stofa
7,3%
sold by TDC.
The second largest operator on DLG Tele
1,3%
the broadband market is
Telia
Sonofon with a marketshare of 0,9%
around 13 %.
Telmore
0,3%
Wholesale market shares
(internal plus external sales
Dansk Kabel TV
3,7%
included) is larger as service
providers use TDCS network

Øvrige/
Others
15,3%
Sonofon
13,4%
Canal Digital
0,9%
TDC
53,3%
Broadband – wholesale market
situation

TDC has a high proportion of the fixed line customers (1.2
million. customers), and TDC owns both the copper
network and the largest cable-tv networks (YouSee).

To ensure competition TDC is required to provide other
broadband companies access to its copper.

The other providers had at the end of 2008 approx.
343,000 customers on TDC's copper.

NITA is also considering to require TDC to provide access
to its cable-tv network.

Conditions and prices for access to TDC's copper is
important to secure that the other broadband companies
can continue to deliver broadband products based on
TDC's copper.
2. Broadband regulation in Denmark
with focus on fibre
FTTH subscriptions
Øvrige / Others
10,9%



The number of FTTH
subscriptions sold in
Denmark is increasing
rapidly.
From the end of 2007 to
the end of 2008 the
number and subscriptions
grew from just under
50,000 to 87,000.
The FTTH market is
dominated by the power
utility companies.
A+ Arrownet
0,4%
ComX
14,2%
Trefor
11,9%
Dansk Bredbånd
18,8%
Sydfyns Intranet
5,3%
NRGi
4,2%
Bredbånd Nord
3,3%
Midtvest Bredbånd
11,6%
FastTV
3,5%
Energi Midt
16,2%
Coverage – FTTH, FTTx
Coverage
Postal districts
Number of subscribers
end 2008: 110,000
October 2008
Fibre rollout




The rollout of fibre is led by the power utilities.
The fibre companies that are members of the Dansk
Energi (Danish Energy) have an objective to
invest over 10 billion Danish kroner in FTTH over a
10-year period.
Up to 2008 the power utilities have invested about
5.5 billion Danish kroner in fibre.
There rollout plan is to cover half of the Danish
households by 2015.
Proposed broadband
regulation in Denmark
Note: Only access regulation.
Market 4 – wholesale network infrastructure access (Final Decision)




Unbundled local loop regulation upheld
Fibre is not included in the market
No significant supply of unbundled FTTH (internal and external)
No significantdemand for unbundled FTTH (internal and external)
Market 5 - wholesale broadband access (Draft decision)


BSA regulation continued
Fibre is included in the market



No regulation on fibre since the SMP-operator (TDC) only operates very few
FTTH
If TDC deploys FTTH in larger scale regulation will be considered
Cable broadband access mandated in draft
3. Proposed regulated access to TDC
cable network
Content of the Gartner report
- What products will it be possible, based on
a technical analysis, to provide in a
wholesale market for broadband via the
cable TV infrastructure?
- What investments in technology will be
necessary in order to realise this?
- What impact will the provision of wholesale
products have on TDC in terms of
investment and current management?
The possible acces products
(from the gartner report)
Overview of the products
Product 1: Decentralised bitstream access with static sharing
of capacity in YouSee's infrastructure. Each ISP is
assigned a frequency spectrum in the infrastructure the
use of which is controlled by the ISP.
Product 2: Decentralised bitstream access with dynamic
sharing of capacity in YouSee's infrastructure. YouSee and
ISP share the frequency spectrum dynamically in the
infrastructure, and the ISP is allowed to control traffic on
a decentralised basis at 35 collection points.
Product 3: Centralised bitstream access with dynamic
sharing of capacity in YouSee's infrastructure. As product
2, but with one central collection point for traffic.
Product 4: Resale of YouSee's products. The ISPs resell the
products offered by YouSee.
Product 1 (Frequency access):
Dedicated capacity to ISP (maximum freedom
to offer content)
No capacity sharing between ISPs
Scarcity of channels for broadband (especially
in the upstream)
Limit on number of ISPs (two?)
DOCSIS 3 uses channelbonding to provide
higher speeds (future proof?)
Product 2 and 3 (Bitstream
Access)
Ability for some product differentiation
Overbooking factor the similar for all ISPs
Shared capacity amongst all users (sevices
important)
Number of ISPs not limited
Product 4 (Resale):
Resale of network operators products
Little possibility for product differentiation (on
a technical level)
Special issues and challenges
with cable broadband




Point to multipoint network
Network management
Danish issue: Ownership structure of underlying
networks
”…there are known knowns; there are things we
know we know. We also know there are known
unknowns; that is to say we know there are some
things we do not know. But there are also unknown
unknowns -- the ones we don't know we don't
know.” - Donald Rumsfeld
Thank you for your time
Link to the gartner report on broadband