Georgia's ComCom finds one operator holds about 70 per cent of usable ducts

Georgia's Communications Commission (ComCom) has preliminary findings that one operator owns about 70 per cent of the potentially usable infrastructure in the wholesale market for access to communications ducts, and that existing rules are insufficient, a ComCom statement dated 22 September said.

Chairman Goga Gulordava presented the findings to a joint meeting of two parliamentary committees as part of the Commission's 2025 activity report. The finding comes from the second stage, in 2025, of what ComCom calls a holistic study on promoting competition in the telecommunications market. That stage looked at the market for physical communications infrastructure in two segments, access to ducts and access to poles. Preliminary results identified an operator with significant market power in the wholesale ducts market, the statement says, and the report concludes that additional regulation is needed. The statement does not name the operator.

Ducts and poles

The poles segment was judged competitive. ComCom said access to electricity and street-lighting poles is already regulated under Georgian law on sharing telecom and usable physical infrastructure. In the ducts market it listed high barriers to entry, weak competition, a strengthened position for the dominant infrastructure owner and the limited effectiveness of existing rules.

Experts consulted for the study recommended transparency and non-discrimination in access, standardised access procedures and stronger tools for monitoring access and regulating access fees. ComCom said the regulation the study envisages is meant to help smaller and new market players build their own offers, allow network operators to earn more from their capacity and widen consumer choice.

Business broadband and wholesale markets

The same stage examined corporate terms for business subscribers in the retail fixed internet market. It covered the most demanded services, the main factors in choosing a provider and the difficulties customers face in selecting one. Two further wholesale studies have been launched, on IP transit (global and local internet connectivity) and on dedicated backhaul channels connecting settlements. ComCom said in the statement that these markets are particularly important for small and medium fixed-network operators.

For 2026, ComCom plans to analyse the wholesale market for access to high-quality services over fixed networks, following the retail business findings. It will consult stakeholders on the markets under review before adopting decisions, calculate access tariffs for fixed and mobile networks as part of implementing first-stage decisions, and continue work with access seekers and network operators on the terms of access offers. The statement does not describe what the first stage covered or when it was completed.

The fixed market behind the study

The study applies to a fixed market that ComCom's sector statement of the same date sizes at 1.212 million fixed broadband subscribers at the end of 2025, 54,000 more than in 2024, with fixed internet in 2,583 of Georgia's 3,385 villages. A separate ComCom account of the state fibre programme says 18 internet service providers and three mobile operators were using the programme's Open Net platform as of 2025.

Several questions remain open in the material ComCom has published so far:

• The operator concerned is not named.
• The statement does not say how the 70 per cent figure was measured or whether it applies nationally or to particular areas.
• The statement publishes no data from the study, and it describes the findings as preliminary.
• The statement gives no timetable for a decision, although ComCom says it will consult stakeholders before adopting one.

ComCom said the study is intended to let smaller and new companies develop, and Gulordava presented the work as ongoing. The statement does not say which remedies are under consideration beyond the experts' recommendations on transparency, standard procedures and fee oversight, or whether access fees for ducts will be regulated alongside the access tariffs for fixed and mobile networks that ComCom plans to calculate in 2026.