3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. The Authority's actions 3. The Authority's actions 3.1. Networks and electronic communications 3.1.1. The market surveys BU-LRIC model for the determination of the tariffs of the interconnection services offered in IP technology The resolutions relative to market surveys on the collection, termination and transit services and the subsequent provision for defining the prices of the interconnection services (resolutions nos. 179/10/CONS, 180/10/CONS and 229/11/CONS) have established that for the years following 2011, the prices of the collection and district transit services offered on fixed network in IP mode by Telecom Italia and the prices of the termination service on fixed network offered in IP mode by all the operators notified have been defined on the basis of a special cost model of the bottom-up LRIC type. The said "BU-LRIC" model must take into account the indications contained in the Recommendation 2009/396/EC of the European Commission of 7 May 2009 on the regulation of the termination tariffs on fixed and mobile networks. The Authority has launched the procedure for the development of the aforesaid model with communication published on its own website on 15 December 2011. In consideration of the complexity of the work to be carried out, the Authority has decided to use the consultancy of a subject of proven international experience for the preparation of the model and has conferred the consultancy mandate on the company Nera s.r.l. Since Telecom Italia has been notified for the supply of the termination, district transit (forwarding) and collection services, the Authority has deemed it opportune to guarantee maximum consistency in the implementation of the price control obligation for all interconnection services. For that matter, in addition to the termination service prices, the modelled developed by NERA will also define the prices of the forwarding and district transit and collection services, supplied by Telecom Italia. Since the model is of the prospective type, it is based on the IP interconnection architecture which will be adopted by the operators in the near future. The work of preparing the model required intense collaboration with the operators of the sector, in order to collect all the information useful for the calculation of the costs sustained by a hypothetical operator efficient in supplying interconnection services in IP technology. In order to acquire the information necessary, the responsible office of the Markets Director sent several requests for information to the fixed network operators and, at the moment, it is processing the information received to render it consistent as a whole and with the framework of the model. As usual, once the model is completed it will be subjected to national, and then European, consultation. It is therefore forecast that the final provision will be adopted after the summer holiday period. The markets of voice call termination services on single mobile networks The Authority has completed the third cycle of the market surveys of the voice termination services on mobile network with resolution no. 621/11/CONS, 187 Annual report on the activity carried out and on the work programmes 2012 identifying an important market for each mobile network and the four mobile network operators (MNO) in Italy as operators with a significant market power (SMP), namely: Telecom Italia, Vodafone, Wind and H3G. The Authority has confirmed that the four mobile network operators have the following obligations: i) access and use of certain network resources; ii) transparency; iii) non discrimination; iv) price control and cost accounting. With regard to the price control obligation, the Authority has approved a path of programmed reduction of termination tariffs (glide path) on the basis of which, from 1 July 2012, the termination tariffs applied by the MNO notified will be gradually reduced to the value of 0.98 Euro cents per minute as of 1 July 2013. This value represents the long-term cost increase associated with the voice termination service on mobile network (so-called efficient tariff) determined by a bottom-up LRIC type cost model previously defined by the Authority with resolution no. 60/11/CONS and in line with the content of the EC Recommendation on the regulation of termination tariffs on fixed and mobile networks. With the glide path fixed by resolution no. 621/11/CONS, the Authority has brought forward by six months the term for reaching full tariff symmetry, and by eighteen months the term for reaching the efficient tariff, in respect of the glide path previously proposed in public consultation (resolution no. 254/11/CONS). In this way the Authority has taken into account the European Commission's invitation, on one hand, to reduce as quickly as possible the termination tariffs and, on the other, to guarantee the notified MNO the time necessary for adapting the programming of their investments to the new economic-regulatory context being defined, also in the light of the process of technological transition towards the new LTE (Long Term Evolution) standard. The markets of SMS termination services The SMS termination services markets are not included among those subject to regulation ex-ante published with the EC Recommendation of 2007. However the Authority, with resolution no. 472/10/CONS, had deemed it necessary to check, in an adequate procedural context, such as that of a voice termination services survey, also the possible opportunity of regulating ex-ante the messaging (SMS) termination services. With resolution no. 670/10/CONS, the Authority therefore launched the termination services market survey. Within the sphere of the same procedure the Authority intended to analyse both the voice termination and the SMS termination markets. However, while the voice termination services analysis concluded with the adoption of resolution no. 621/11/CONS, that of the SMS termination services is still in progress since, subsequent to communications with the responsible European Commission offices, the need came to light for the necessity for further inquiries relative to the possibility of replacing the SMS retail services with push e-mail and instant messaging services. The Authority's offices therefore requested the operators for the information necessary to follow up the request. The information received in reply is at present being processed. The market survey of the SMS services, like the procedure relative to the model, once completed, will be submitted to national, then European, consultation. 188 3. The Authority's actions MVNO monitoring The monitoring of the market and competitive dynamics which concern the virtual mobile operators (MVNO) is explicitly envisaged by resolution no. 621/11/CONS, relative to the market survey of voice termination services on single mobile networks. The MVNO operators, although not owners of the mobile network resources or assignees of radio frequencies, may be equipped with their own wire markers, therefore their own SIM (Subscriber Identification Module cards, or subscriber identification modules), and they can directly manage the dial-up and transport functions, such as the HLR (Home Location Register, i.e. the registration database of mobile users. These operators not only offer retail telephony services to the end customers, but they are also potentially able to provide termination services to the original operator for calls towards their own numbers. In the above-mentioned decision, the Authority has included the examination of the evolution of the mobile termination services offer on the part of the MVNO within the sphere of a wider monitoring activity, which will concern the market and competitive dynamics which involve the virtual operators, in order to assess whether to exercise its own regulatory or supervisory power. The purpose is to guarantee the MVNO fair and reasonable technical and economic conditions in the agreements with the host operators, also in respect of the collection service. The regulation of Next Generation Access Networks services With the approval, in January 2012, of resolution no. 1/12/CONS, the Authority reached an important target along the path, undertaken in 2009, for the definition of the rules to apply to the Next Generation Access Networks – (NGAN). In fact, resolution no. 1/12/CONS represents the final step of a procedure, launched by the Authority with resolution no. 498/10/CONS, within the sphere of which two national public consultations were carried out. The first regards the Authority's approach to the regulation of the Next Generation Access Networks services (resolution no. 1/11/CONS) and the second, launched in May 2011, regarded a regulatory framework which, on the basis of the elements emerging during the first consultation, established in detail the regulatory obligations to be imposed on Telecom Italia relative to the NGA services (resolution no. 301/11/CONS). The regulatory proposal thus formulated was, as usual, communicated to the European Commission and to the Antitrust Authority, whose comments were received on 28 June and 19 July 2011 respectively. The final provision, which takes into account the comments received at both national and European level, outlines a regulatory approach intended to balance competition and to promote investments in the fixed network access market. In this sense, the regulation dictated by the Authority, which is in line with the European Commission's NGA Recommendation, has the following objectives: i) to encourage operators of all sizes to progressively expand their own infrastructures and to thus progress in the scale of investments (in application of the "investment ladder" principle); ii) recognition of the differences in the existing competitive conditions between the diverse geographic areas of the country; iii) the remuneration of the investment risk (by means of a risk premium), which aspect appears even more critical in the 189 Annual report on the activity carried out and on the work programmes 2012 present context of stagnation in the macroeconomic situation and in the sector; iv) the promotion of joint investment initiatives and the sharing of the business risk between the operators.