Other Licensed Operators
Other Licensed Operators (OLO) are competitors in the telecommunications industry who operate state-licensed communication channels (telephone, data networks), such as Deutsche Telekom , Colt Technology Services or Vodafone .
In Germany, the Federal Network Agency regulates this market.
The term Other Licensed Operators and the abbreviation OLO is used not only in Germany, but also in other countries.
background
After the fall of the postal monopoly in Germany (see also postal reform ) and the regulation of the telecommunications markets in the mid-1990s, private companies were also able to create transmission channels for telecommunications services for the public under the Telecommunications Act . The construction and operation of these networks was subject to a license in Germany - and also in other countries where this market was opened up to competitors.
In September 2003, the license requirement was replaced by a general license with notification requirements, whereby the licenses distributed up to then remain valid.
With this in mind, we still speak of 'OLO' today, i.e. telecommunications companies with their own networks that compete with one another but also couple their networks with one another (NNI) .