Failure to allow telecoms operators access to the final portion of Eircom's local network, through a process of full local loop unbundling, would be harmful for foreign investment flows and could produce legal action against the State, a consultancy report has warned.
Access to Bandwidth - Delivering Competition in the Local Loop, a report conducted by Arthur Andersen for the Association of Licenced Telecommunications Operators (ALTO) - comprising operators other than Eircom - argues that the Republic should move quickly to mandate full physical local loop unbundling.
The report argues bitstream access, a method proposed by the Office of the Director of Telecommunications Regulation last month, constrains a new telecommunication's entrant and could damage the economy.
It would curtail telecoms operators from providing broadband services such as internet, video-on-demand and high speed data transfer over the local network, which are critical to the development of the e-economy, the report argues.
The cost to the economy of a failure to unbundle the local loop in full would be measured in billions rather than millions, the report adds.
The report highlights that while the regulator does not have the regulatory powers to force Eircom to allow full access to its network but could face legal action from the European Commission which has set a target date of December 2000 for full local loop unbundling.
