Germany’s telecoms regulator, the Regulierungsbehoerde, yesterday gave a helping hand to the country’s small ISPs, reducing the fee incumbent telco Deutsche Telekom AG charges them for access to its internet backbone.
Until now, ISPs have been paying a rate of between 3.08 pfennigs and 7.29 pfennigs ($0.02- $0.04) per minute, whereas Telekom’s own ISP, T-Online, enjoyed a rate of just 2.6 pfennigs ($0.01). Now the regulator has obliged DT to charge other ISPs the same rate paid by T-Online.
Regulierungsbehoerde chief Klaus-Dieter Scheurle said that, in the wake of this decision, all ISPs, including T-Online, can charge their customers an internet access fee, bundled in with the phone charge itself, of 6 pfennigs (3 cents) per minute.
‘With this decision, the regulator is seeking to guarantee low, discrimination-free prices for the most important telecoms market in the future, as well as a diversity of service providers,’ he said.
