Country’s Competition Commission issued directives to Peshawar Electric Supply Company (Pesco) to restore access to the Right of Way (ROW) to Nayatel and Cybernet in next 21 days or to pay penalty of Rs75 million.
The Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) has in its order found that Peshawar Electric Supply Company (Pesco) has acted in violation of Section 3 of the Competition Act, 2010.
“Section 3 of the Act prohibits the abuse of a dominant position through any practice that prevents, restricts, reduces, or distorts competition in the relevant market. These practices include, but are not limited to, reducing production or sales, unreasonable price increases, charging different prices to different customers without objective justifications, tieins that make the sale of goods or services conditional on the purchase of other goods or services, predatory pricing, refusing to deal, and boycotting or excluding any other undertaking from producing, distributing or selling goods, or providing any service”.
This entails abusing its dominant position by imposing discriminatory terms and unfair trading conditions in the provision of Right of Way (ROW) to cable and internet service providers in Peshawar.
In its order the CCP directed to ensure compliance and encourage corrective behaviour. “In case of failure, the respondent shall be liable to pay a fixed penalty of Rs75 million and an additional penalty of Rs0.5 million for every day after the first of such violations had occurred”.
Pesco was dominant in the market for ROW through electric poles availed by different types of cable service providers in the geographical boundary of Peshawar, as it solely owned and managed the poles and there were no other substitutes.
For the ROW being provided to the cable operators, the complainants (Nayatel Pvt Ltd and Cyber Internet Services Pvt Ltd) were charged an enhanced fee from Rs10 to Rs100 per pole as compared to basic TV cable operators without any legitimate objective justifications. The terms have been held as discriminatory and in contravention of Section 3(3)(b) of the Act, the order said. Pesco abused its superior bargaining position and imposed further unfair trading conditions in contravention of Section 3(3)(a) of the Act on the complainants, it said.
Pesco’s conduct was also discriminatory as decommissioning notices related to removal of cables were only sent to the complainants. In this connection, the bench found support from the applicable telecommunication regulatory regime, particularly in terms of Section 27A of the Pakistan Telecommunication (Re-organisation) Act 1996 and the 2020 Public and Private Right of Way Policy Directive.
The commission emphasised that access to broadband technology has significant beneficial economic and social impacts and is in line with the objectives of the government to promote digital inclusion.
It also recommended that all private and government stakeholders, including the respondent, create a uniform policy for the deployment of broadband technology and ROW that may address space and safety issues.
