Germany faces lawsuit on broadband access

(Associated Press via ewsEdge) The European Commission had launched a lawsuit against Germany over a law allowing Deutsche Telekom to keep rivals off its high-speed Internet networks.

EU spokesman Martin Selmayr told reporters that a letter 'of formal notice' was sent to Berlin after it ignored repeated warnings not to adopt legislation that could grant Deutsche Telekom a de facto monopoly on a new broadband network.

The German parliament passed the telecommunications law, exempting Deutsche Telekom's high-speed network from regulation and demands to open up its network to competitors, at least for now.

Under legal procedures, the German government has only been given 15 days to answer the legal notice issued by the commission.

'I regret that Germany has chosen to ignore the commission's concerns about this new telecom law despite several clear warnings from the Commission,' said Viviane Reding, EU commissioner in charge of telecommunications issues.

She said the German law is 'an attempt to stifle competition in a crucial sector of the economy, and in violation of the EU telecom rules in place since 2002.'

Germany's Economy Ministry countered that the new law creates 'a balance between the necessary strengthening of competition and the concerns of companies that are willing to invest.'

It said in a statement that the disputed regulation 'does not foresee a special treatment of Deutsche Telekom's glass-fiber DSL network, but deals abstractly with the question of regulation or non-regulation of new markets.'

Deutsche Telekom did not immediately return a call for comment.