France Telecom loses its ADSL appeal

NEWS France Telecom has lost its appeal to retain control of ADSL access within France. The Court of Appeal ruled against the telecom giant and stated it had until 17 April to form a commercial and technical proposal offering its competitors access to ADSL services. France Telecom had initially lodged an appeal following the original decision made by the European Commission of Competition. The Commission set the deadline to settle a long running battle between the dominant French telco and competitors such as Cegetal, Siris and 9 Telecom over high-speed Internet access. The decision marks an important step in the movement by French telcos to end France Telecom's monopoly of the market. The Government has already begun procedures to unbundle the local loop enabling French telcos to offer cheaper phone calls.