Amendment of telecom law in Poland: new rules for setting operators’ wholesale rates

2011-05-10



An amendment of telecommunications law dated 15 April 2011 has been signed by Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski. The amendment regulates procedures that the president of the Office of Electronic Communications (UKE) will be obligated to implement in case the wholesale rates set by operators are determined to be invalid.

The new version of the law no longer contains decisions allowing UKE to independently set wholesale prices for telecommunication services (e.g. based on benchmarks). The regulations were recognised by the European Commission as untransparent and unlawful, as they allowed UKE to ignore the cost calculations presented by the operator despite the fact that they were approved by the statutory auditor. The amendment forces UKE to set rates based on the previously approved cost model.