Public consultation on draft bill for ban on branded wifi routers

As previously reported, the Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Energy has published a draft bill regarding customers’ free choice of wifi routers in February. Accordingly, German ISPs would have to allow their customers to use alternative routers and to provide them with all necessary information. In parallel with the publication of the draft legislation, the Ministry had launched a public consultation asking the Federal States, trade associations and undertakings to comment on the draft until 20 March 2015.

The Ministry has now published all 24 opinions on its website. While most commentators support the draft legislation, some network operators, such as Kabel Deutschland, Unity Media, Telefónica, have expressed criticism: They warn of an impairment of the proper functioning of their networks. The use of alternative routers would have a negative effect on bandwidths, security functions and high quality service, they say. Moreover, the operators object to the intended legal definition of the network termination point (NTP) in the Telecommunications Act. In their view, each network operator should be able to define its own NTP.

Unimpressed by this criticism, the German Government is still determined to put an end to the obligation of company-branded wifi routers and establish free product choice for customers. Its objective is also to give manufacturers of routers access to the market and to mitigate dependence of certain manufacturers of routers on exclusive deals with network operators.

In a next step the draft bill will be notified to the European Commission. According to heise.de experts hold it possible that the network operators will raise an objection to the bill before the European Commission. The Federal Ministry, though, estimates that the legislation procedure will be completed “within the second half of 2015”. 

These articles could also interest you 

German regulator about to ban branded WiFi routers provided by Internet service providers

German Government Releases Planned Draft Legislation to Ban Branded WiFi Routers