Projects / Programmes
The impact of the European regulation of electronic communications and competition law on the legal position of telecommunications networks
| Code |
Science |
Field |
Subfield |
| 5.05.00 |
Social sciences |
Law |
|
| Code |
Science |
Field |
| 5.05 |
Social Sciences |
Law |
elektronske komunikacije, omrežna infrastruktura, 5G, stvarno pravo, konkurenčno pravo
Researchers (10)
Organisations (2)
Abstract
The development of electronic communications networks is essential for the rapid technological and economic development of modern society. The smooth operation of the communication infrastructure, in particular optical cables and base stations for 5G mobile network transmitters, is essential to ensure broadband data transmission. In order to ensure coverage of the entire territory, facilities and devices of public communications networks are typically placed on land or facilities that are not owned by the network operator, so it is necessary to regulate relations with the owners of these properties. The regulations on electronic communications adopted at EU and national level supplement the general rules of property law with certain specifics regarding the content and manner of compulsory establishment of easements for the public benefit for the purposes of construction and operation of public communications networks. The construction and smooth operation of these networks are undoubtedly in the public interest. Nevertheless, in practice, many open questions arise in this regard. The relatively rigid traditional property law thus collides with the new European regulations of the rapidly evolving field of electronic communications. The regulation of property rights on other people’s land or objects is one of the major obstacles that slow down the construction of communication networks, and the unregulated state of rights in relation to the existing infrastructure is one of the major risks for operators. Controlling an existing communications network can be a powerful tool by which an existing operator restricts market entry to new, competing service providers and thus restricts competition in the market. The regulation of electronic communications enables the Agency for Communication Networks and Services of the Republic of Slovenia (AKOS) to eliminate obstacles to the development of effective competition on the market through prior market regulation. For this purpose, the Agency may order the joint use of property or communication facilities. The legislation also introduced the institute of joint construction of electronic communications networks, which requires infrastructure operators to allow interested co-investors to participate in the construction and installation of their network elements during construction work on physical infrastructure. In practice, the institutes of access, common use and common construction appear to raise a number of issues, especially in the field of property law. For example, it is unclear whether the use of the existing infrastructure by additional operators is covered by pre-established easements established solely for the benefit of an individual operator, or whether new operators need to acquire their easements. A similar question arises in the joint construction of infrastructure - whether co-investors must acquire the right to build separately and in what timeframes they must acquire it. It is not clear when an existing easement beneficiary can deny another operator the possibility to use its infrastructure if it has not obtained such a permit, and what the owner of the serving property can do. These issues are all the more pressing because the legal position of existing networks and devices on other person’s land is often not clearly regulated. The aim of the project is to identify problems that arise in the real legal regulation of relations regarding various forms of joint use of public communications networks, to classify them into types and legally qualify them and to formulate theoretically substantiated and practically useful solutions.
