Privatisierung/Deregulierung/ Marktverfassung: Die Sicht der Regulierungsbehörde

Abstract

The Regulatory Authority can now look back on five years of liberalized telecommunications markets in Germany. This is an opportunity to recall the legislative rationale of liberalization and the regulatory instruments chosen, and to assess how the markets have developed. Aware that telecommunications were not one of the state’s core tasks and that there were obvious advantages to services being provided by private companies in a competitive environment, the lawmakers framed the conditions for competition in the provisions of the Telecommunications Act (TKG). In retrospect, these arrangements have largely proved their worth, even if the global economic crisis of the last two years has made itself felt in the telecommunications markets as well. Hence the forthcoming amendment should reflect the TKG’s pro-competition philosophy and seek only to improve upon the regulatory instruments where they have been found wanting.