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Comment by ksec | Hacker News Reader

Britain has forced companies to lease their networks to competitors at cost?

So anyone could just enter the market?

That's a rather common practice to fight natural monopolies - here in Slovenia the largest operator (which was merged together from a landline / mobile / ISP) has to provide it's own networks (landline / FTTH / mobile) to competitors at a market price.

Keeps the competition going and benefits users.

So anyone could just enter the market?

Better question, why would anyone ever build a network if they are prohibited from making a profit?

They are still making a significant profit, but not as much as they would without this legislation.

That kind of legislation usually is only relevant for the "incumbent" (because the rules usually state "if you have more than x% of the lines .."), i.e. the ex-monopoly provider who didn't build anything. It was build by tax payer money and then given to them.

The article is wrong. It's for fixed line broadband.

Though there are a lot of cell/network sharing agreements in the market (to various extents - some are actually cell roaming but some are just sharing backhaul/fibre/the physical towers):

O2 and Vodafone Orange and TMobile (merged to form EE) Three and TMobile (may or may not include ex-Orange sites, not sure).

Yes, pretty much. That's the point of the regulatory required by EU, which UK implemented.

Well not really.

This isn't true. This is only true for broadband. The article is wrong.

giffgaff is a great example of this, a very small company that piggy-backs on the O2 network, giving really cheap tarifs. http://giffgaff.com/goodybags

Giffgaff is an MVNO, that's true, but it is actually owned by O2.

Not mobile networks.

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