Telekom Must Open Its Network to Rivals

The top European court on Thursday overruled an attempt by German regulators to allow Deutsche Telekom, the former state-run phone monopoly, to ban competitors from having access to its new high-speed broadband network. The European Court of Justice in Luxembourg sided with the European Commission, which had sued Germany over a 2006 national law that granted Deutsche Telekom a "holiday" from European Union regulations for its 3 billion euro ($4.5 billion) fiber optic network. The commission, which had criticized the German regulator, the Bundesnetzagentur, for endorsing the exemption, called the court's decision an affirmation that regulatory "holidays" were illegal.