Germany’s Federal Network Agency, the national telecoms regulator, said it is prepared to scale back regulations of the German telecoms market to facilitate the expansion of fibre-optic internet in Germany, wrote Jochen Homann, the president of the agency, in a guest op-ed in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ), a German daily.

Homann wrote that the Federal Network Agency would consider rolling back existing access and tariff regulations for telecommunications firms to spur investments and innovations in fibre-optic as long as there were laws specifying “a means for settling disputes” with the regulator. The Federal Network Agency would take on an “arbitration role” in this instance, he added. 

Still, Homann rebuffed Telekom’s demands for the agency to completely do away with regulations for the fibre-optic market, writing that Telekom will have to accept that competitors will not want to be left defenseless or dependent on drawn-out civil proceedings, even though they may be willing to forgo certain regulations for the sake of cooperation.

Homann likewise rejected calls from the Vodafone-led “Speed Alliance” to completely retain existing regulations. Instead, both Telekom and Vodafone will have to innovate and invest in technologies like FTTH to win over customers rather then rely on regulations, a lack thereof, to protect their interests, he warned. 

Breko, Germany’s federal broadband association, said it approved Homann’s statement, noting that many of his points aligned with the association’s positions on Germany’s fibre roll out. While fewer regulations could promote the spread of fibre through cooperations between Telekom and its competitors, the Federal Network Agency still needs to be able to intervene as a “neutral referee” if open access negotiations fail or are refused, said Breko. 

Telekom should not be allowed to recreate its monopoly by shutting out competitors as it switches to a new technology, they added. Instead, authorities need to develop a “migration plan” that binds all payers to a common set of rules as Germany makes the switch from copper wiring over to fibre.