BONN (dpa-AFX) - In the German mobile communications market, small competitors of the large German mobile network operators are suffering a setback. The Federal Network Agency published a report in Bonn on Tuesday according to which there is effective competition on the market. If the opposite had been the case, this would have been a strong argument in favor of a so-called service provider obligation. Under such an obligation, network operators would have to rent capacity to small companies that do not have their own network and offer relatively cheap tariffs. From the point of view of consumer advocates, such companies are important for competition.

In spring, the Federal Network Agency wants to determine how important cell phone network frequencies may be used in future. It recently proposed extending the current usage rights - this would be a tailwind for the network operators Deutsche Telekom, Vodafone and Telefónica Deutschland (O2). The issue of the service provider obligation is being clarified in a kind of side issue of this groundbreaking set of regulations. Freenet and other companies are insisting on such a regulation so that they can gain appropriate access to the 5G technology standard.

However, the expert opinion gives little hope that the Federal Network Agency will issue such a regulation and thus strengthen the backs of small competitors. The regulatory authority is not bound by the results of the report by the consulting firms WIK and EY. However, the head of the authority, Klaus Müller, made it clear that the results of the report would be taken into account in the upcoming decision in the frequency procedure. At the same time, he emphasized that the demand for competition is an important goal of frequency regulation.

Following the publication of the report and Müller's assessment, a full service provider obligation appears very unlikely. What remains conceivable is at least a slight tightening of existing rules so that small telecommunications companies are not left out in the cold completely./wdw/DP/jha