European communications policy has a tradition of relying on access obligations as primary tool to discipline exclusive control over so called bottleneck facilities. The overarching goal behind the application of access obligations in the European communications sector is to foster open and competitive markets with a broad range of diverse, interoperable services for consumers (European Commission, 1999, p. 25). The European Access Directive (1), part of the revised Communications Framework, continued this tradition and empowered National Regulatory Authorities (NRAs) to impose access obligations on all kinds of communications networks, services and technical facilities. The ...