FRANKFURT, June 16 (Reuters) - Germany's telecoms regulatorwill try again to persuade the European Commission to approveDeutsche Telekom plans to use its existing copperwiring to connect homes and offices to its high-speedfibre-optic broadband network.
Competitors including Vodafone complained the planwould leave them dependent on the Deutsche Telekom network andunable to tailor how they attracted customers.
The technology, known as "vectoring", only works whenapplied to a whole bundle of copper cables, meaning thatindividual lines cannot be unbundled physically to give accessto alternative operators.
Rivals would get 'virtual' access to the 'local loop' coppernetwork, but the Commission said this arrangement would deny thedegree of control necessary to differentiate their retail offersfrom those of Deutsche Telekom.
With Deutsche Telekom owning the network and rivals payingto get access to it, competitors would struggle to offer choiceson price or quality.
The German regulator said it had withdrawn its proposal andwould submit a new one early next week.
The European Commission said in a statement: "The Commissionwas concerned that the proposal would not be in line with EUtelecoms rules, which encourage competition on telecoms markets,technological development and ultimately a high quality ofservices for consumers."
Former national network monopolies such as Deutsche Telekomand Britain's BT say the application of new copper-basedG.fast technology is a far cheaper and quicker way to get morepeople hooked up to high-speed broadband than aiming to run newfibre into every building.
But rivals say that an independent fibre-optic network wouldgive all players equal chances.
They have warned that initiatives such as vectoring couldslow the roll-out of much faster, but also more expensive,fibre-optic connections. In Germany alone the cost of such anetwork is estimated at up to 80 billion euros ($89 billion).
Deutsche Telekom's Chief Executive Tim Hoettges toldshareholders last month that its competitors should stop moaningand start investing.
The German regulator had approved Deutsche Telekom's planlast year to use vectoring technology to double the bandwidth ofthe existing copper lines running from a fibre-connected centraldistribution point to give download speeds of up to 100 Mbpsinstead of running fibre all the way into homes and offices. ($1 = 0.8969 euros) (Reporting by Harro ten Wolde; Additional reporting by JuliaFioretti in Brussels; Editing by David Goodman/Ruth Pitchford)
Vodafone (VOD)