New challenges in municipal broadband network management : from vertical integration to wholesale-retail model

Over the past years, municipal networks deploying Fiber-to-the-Home (FttH) technologies have increasingly been implemented in Europe. In order to achieve compatibility with the European Union (EU) legal and regulatory framework, a variety of public and private partnership (PPP) models have been developed throughout Europe aimed contributing expertise, finance, etc. to their growth. Recently, the debate has focused on the different industry structure that can foster the growth of municipal networks by moving from sole-supplier environment to a wholesale-retail split model. In undertaking a techno-economic analysis, the paper examines the viability of a wholesale-retail split model. It uses data from the implementation of an FttH network for a small town in the Netherlands. The paper demonstrates that the advantages in moving towards a wholesale retail split model and characterizes the neccessity to define open access conditions for these networks