The Autoridade Nacional de Comunicações (National Communications Authority) (ANACOM) received, on 07/03/03 a complaint submitted by Onitelecom, Infocomunicações S.A. (ONI), against a set of new commercial offers, namely:
i) ?PT Destinations?, which consists in the offer of minute packages for calls in the network of PT Comunicações S.A. (PTC) within the national territory and for calls terminating in Spain, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, the United States and Canada;
ii) ?PT Timeslots? ? ?Night and Weekend?, ?After Hours? and ?Part Time? - which consists in the offer of three different minute packages for local and regional calls within the PTC network;
iii) ?PT Groups? - ?Friends 1 to 1, 1 to 3 and 1 to 10? - which consists in the offer of minute packages for calls within the PTC network, comprising 1, 3 or 10 destinations selected by the user.
Initially, these offers raised concerns as to the possibility of the fixed telephone service providers (FTS), operating by means of indirect access, being able to present similar offers, based on the prices charged by PTC for the interconnection service ? the necessary input to the establishment of analogous offers, as that entity has recognised ? thus constituting an obstacle to the conditions for a sound market competition.
In the light of the above, on 13/03/03 ANACOM requested of PTC additional information regarding the afore-mentioned offers, namely as to the demonstration of the compliance with the applicable regulatory principles.
In reply to the request presented by ANACOM, PTC submitted a range of comments, by letter dated 20/03/03, on the innovatory features of the offers, the compliance with the principle of cost orientation of prices and the compatibility of the offers with the interconnection prices, established by the Board of Directors of ANACOM on 21/03/03https://www.anacom.pt/render.jsp?contentId=418271.
Having analysed the comments put forward by PTC, the Board of Directors of ANACOM approved, by determination of 10/04/03, the likely purport of the decision on the offers under consideration, which was notified to the interested entities, which were entitled to assess the issue if they so wished, pursuant to the Code of Administrative Procedure.
By fax dated 01/07/03, PTC informed that it was finalizing significant reductions on the interconnection prices for the termination of outgoing international traffic, presenting the following expected prices (euro cents per minute) to the relevant destinations, namely, 2, 74 to Spain, France, Germany and the United Kingdom, 3,84 to the United States of America, and 4,39 to Canada.
