TELECOM giant CyTA has been fined £22,000 for abuse of its dominant position in the industry, in denying competitors access to its automated SMS centre.
The penalty was handed down by the Commission for the Protection of Competition (CPC), which ruled in favour of a complaint made by Golden Telemedia against CyTA.
The competition watchdog said that, given CyTA’s dominant position in the telecoms market, the organisation “has a special responsibility” not to pose barriers to competitors and allow them access to its network and infrastructure.
In filing its complaint, Golden Telemedia accused the state provider, which only until recently held a complete market monopoly, of delaying tactics.
Citing “technical difficulties” in providing Golden Telemedia access to its SMS centre, CyTA had suggested an alternative, namely that Golden Telemedia should download messages through Cybee, a portal managed by none other than CyTA.
Under this arrangement, Golden Telemedia would become a middleman and not a direct competitor of CyTA’s.
Moreover, the terms & conditions – and pricing – available to Golden Telemedia through Cybee were deemed to be “unjustifiable,” according to the watchdog.
Last summer the CPC again found CyTA guilty of hampering competition, this time in the pay-TV market.
CyTA and LTV were fined a combined £145,000 for breaching competition laws.
This week the commission upheld an earlier decision, by which LTV was barred from producing for CyTA four entertainment channels on the latter’s miVision digital platform.
CyTA is now likely to take the case to court, which would present an intriguing paradox – a semi-governmental organisation challenging a decision made by another governmental agency, the CPC.
The Boards of directors of semi-state organisations are appointed by the government.
The CPC functions as an independent agency, but its director is named by the President.
Both in 2005 and 2006, the European Commission was damning on Cyprus, finding that innovation and growth in the telecom industry was being hampered by conditions both favouring and sustaining a monopolistic situation.
In the EU’s philosophy, telecom infrastructures are considered to be part of the national wealth and are not owned by any organisation(s). CyTA would therefore be only the administrator, not the owner, of the cable grid.
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