PRESS RELEASE: CTU dealt with comments to the mobile market analysis

Prague, 14 June 2019 – According to the settlement of comments received during a public consultation, none of critical comments on the analysis of wholesale mobile market is convincing enough to reverse the conclusions of the analysis, which CTU considers to be valid. Some subjects support the conclusions of the preliminary analysis or offer further broadening by facts, which would confirm the conclusions of this analysis; some subjects however oppose CTU’s arguments.

In their comments, network operators denied existence of a market failure, which was indicated by CTU in a form of existing tacit collusion between individual competitors.

The high number of virtual operators on the market is not by itself relevant, regardless of the evaluation of their capacity to offer new and different services to customers. It only shows a seeming sign of a competitive environment. In addition, low volume of ported numbers (ca. 3% of the total number of SIM cards annually) points to a relatively slow dynamic of the market.

The analysis sees as the main problem of the retail market – with regard to international price comparison – a fact, that the level of list prices for mobile data services for residential customers is higher, than could be achieved on a market with fully developed competition. Even the fact, that the competition occurs in a form of non-public discounts and not across the board in price lists, can be considered as a tacit collusion strategy.

The preliminary analysis will be now discussed with the Office for the Protection of Competition (UOHS) and send to the European Commission for notification.