Fibre operators are set to become subject to new wholesale requirements, with the incumbent facing the strictest potential regulation on both access and pricing
The Danish competition authority has published 13 draft decisions on new wholesale access obligations
On 3 July 2026, the Danish Competition and Consumer Authority (known locally as the KFST) launched consultations (open until 21 August 2026) on 13 draft decisions relating to the wholesale broadband market. These latest consultations follow the authority’s February 2026 consultations on wholesale commitments offered by five operators (AURA, BornFiber, EnergiFyn, Fibia, Norlys), where it explained that upstream obligations are necessary to ensure effective retail competition as there is only one fibre connection to a household in many parts of the country. The latest consultations in respect of these five operators include draft decisions on their commitments, while the other eight draft decisions include proposed obligations for the remaining operators in scope of the KFST’s analysis. On 6 July 2026, the competition authority also published a draft long-run average incremental cost (LRAIC) decision on prices for access to TDC NET’s high capacity fibre and coaxial cable networks, providing industry with insight into its methodologies and underlying calculations.
Five operators could have their voluntary commitments made binding, requiring fair and reasonable pricing for access to their fibre networks
The authority’s draft decisions would make binding the voluntary commitments offered by five of the operators, which have been designated as having significant market power (SMP) in certain geographic markets. The KFST considered the commitments adequate to address the competition problems identified in its market analysis, seeing no need to impose new obligations on these operators. Each accepted commitment is the same and has been market-tested, with operators set to be bound to the following rules from 18 December 2026:
Access: Operators must provide wholesale access to their networks on fair, reasonable and timely terms;
Non-discrimination: Operators must not self-preference their own retail ISPs and must treat all wholesale customers equally;
Transparency: Operators must make their terms and prices transparent for current and prospective wholesale customers; and
Pricing: Operators must adopt a maximum average price for wholesale access for up to gigabit speeds (price must be based on the authority’s cost model) and must cap annual price rises at 5%.
TDC NET would be bound by stricter obligations, including one to prevent margin squeeze on competitors
TDC NET, the former incumbent, also offered voluntary commitments to the authority in February 2026, but its proposals were not deemed sufficient to resolve the competition issues stemming from its market power. The authority has therefore now published a market decision, outlining draft obligations on TDC NET to mitigate the identified issues. These obligations mostly mirror the binding commitments offered by the five other dominant operators – i.e. to access, non-discrimination, transparency and pricing. However, the authority has gone further with TDC NET’s obligations by including a margin squeeze protection, which would restrict the operator from squeezing out retail ISP competitors by setting its wholesale prices high (within the authority’s pricing framework) and its retail prices low. In this scenario, a competitor buying wholesale access from TDC NET would struggle to profitably replicate its low retail pricing. To prevent this from happening, TDC NET would be required to maintain a positive margin on at least two of its "flagship products". According to the draft LRAIC pricing decision, TDC NET would have its maximum average prices for wholesale fibre and coaxial cable access capped at DKK2,560 (£292) and DKK1,423 (£162) per year, respectively. The fibre price would be inclusive of end user installation costs, while the coaxial price would exclude this. Under the authority’s draft decision, both price caps would come into force on 1 January 2028.
