This Public Consultation document presents the TRC’s preliminary findings on the review of mobile markets and provides its conclusions on whether existing ex ante obligations applied on these markets should be maintained, revised or abandoned, and/or whether or not new ex ante obligations should be introduced.
The Consultation document sets forth the TRC’s rationale as to why wholesale mobile call termination as well as mobile access and call origination ("MACO") must be considered for the imposition of ex ante regulation, and provides a set of proposals on the appropriate scope of ex ante regulatory measures. It does so by defining the relevant markets susceptible to ex ante regulation, identifying any dominant position on these markets and determining appropriate ex ante regulatory measures that target the particular competition problems found. Following the principles and conceptual approach laid out in the White Paper, the TRC’s focus is to remedy the competition problems as much as possible on wholesale markets before addressing any remaining problems at the retail level.
It is important to note that the present mobile markets review is based upon market data collected for the past three past years (2006-2008), and has a forward looking horizon of three (3) years as of the date of the publication of the TRC’s Decisions. At the end of that period, the TRC will assess the need to revisit the market definitions, dominance designations and the ex ante obligations imposed, as a result of this market review, and will update them accordingly. The remedies proposed here will have to be implemented by the TRC as soon as possible so as to allow enough time for the TRC to evaluate their effectiveness.
The Public Consultation Document is available for download.
