Fixed Telecoms Tracker
Copper Retirement benchmark expanded to include information on changes to wholesale copper access charge controls in the context of network retirements
We’ve updated the Copper Retirement benchmark within our Fixed Telecoms Tracker to include new information on how regulators have approached wholesale copper access pricing in advance of network retirements. According to our benchmark, regulators in five countries (France, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Sweden and the UK), allow for increases in wholesale prices during the process of copper retirement. Two of these countries (the Netherlands and Sweden), did so through a wider deregulation of wholesale copper access before network retirement was complete. In a recommendation to the Government issued in August 2025, the Commerce Commission (ComCom) in New Zealand advocated a similar deregulation, noting that increased costs would incentivise migration and better reflect the economics faced by Chorus in maintaining the ageing network. Both Arcep in France and Ofcom in the UK took narrower approaches to pricing flexibility, allowing former incumbents to raise prices on wholesale access conditional to the progress of the migration and only immediately before retirement at an exchange is likely to be completed.
In addition to information on charge controls, we’ve also expanded our benchmark to include new information on protections for vulnerable consumers and consumers facing forced migrations, as well as add eight new countries (Australia, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Portugal, Sweden and Switzerland). Of the 15 countries we now track, three have completed the copper retirement process, 10 have ongoing retirements underway and two have yet to begin the process. Among the 13 countries with established regulatory frameworks for the migration, only six still maintain coverage thresholds for next-generation networks before copper retirement may proceed. Australia, France, Italy, Ireland and the UK all require complete overlap with the copper footprint whereas New Zealand is proposing deregulation and the removal of their threshold.
