Purpose of this call for tenders:
The European Commission will launch soon a call for tenders for a service contract of a maximum value of EUR 60 000.
The purpose of this call is to commission a study which will review the approaches used by National Regulatory Authorities (NRAs) to estimating a reasonable rate of return for both legacy and Next Generation (such as fibre) investments in telecoms networks.
NRAs typically use the Weighted Average Cost of Capital (WACC) in their regulatory proceedings to estimate a reasonable return on investments in telecoms networks. However, in practice NRAs have applied this approach in different ways, resulting in differences across the EU that may not necessarily reflect national circumstances.
The study will take stock of current practices, identify best practice, and consider whether there is scope for developing guidance on a common methodology to be used by NRAs for calculating the WACC - or at least some of the parameters used in its calculation - with a view to ensuring greater consistency in the EU.
The choice of the WACC considerably determines prices paid by end users of telecommunications services and the investment decisions of network operators. It is important, therefore, to ensure a reasonable and consistent rate of return on investments in regulatory proceedings. The objective of this review would thus be twofold: on the one hand, it would assess the scope for limiting inconsistencies in the way NRAs estimate the WACC for legacy networks; on the other hand, it would seek to assess the minimum return required for NGA (Next Generation Access) investments and thus promote investments in fibre networks across the EU.
For further information on context, objectives of the study and tasks to be carried out by the selected contractor, please see the Annex.
Interested economic operators can express their interest to participate in the call for tender until 15 June in writing to CNECT-R2-EOI@ec.europa.eu.
No evaluation is performed at this stage. All the economic operators who have expressed their interest to participate in this procurement procedure within the above-mentioned deadline will be subsequently invited to submit a tender. The contracting authority reserves the right to also invite economic operators not included in the list of interested economic operators who responded to this ex-ante advertisement.
An economic operator may consider submitting a tender as a single entity or in collaboration with other service providers: either by submitting a joint tender with (a) partner(s) and/or through subcontracting. The economic operator must indicate at the stage of the expression of interest the legal status and the role of each legal entity being part of the grouping.
Only the candidates invited by the contracting authority to participate in this procurement procedure will be admissible. Tenders submitted by groupings of economic operators other than the ones declared in response to this ex-ante advertisement will be rejected.
Processing your reply to the ex-ante advertisement will involve the recording and processing of personal data (such as your name and address). Such data will be processed pursuant to Regulation (EC) No 45/2001 on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data by the Community institutions and bodies and on the free movement of such data. Unless indicated otherwise, any personal data requested are required to register your interest to participate in the call for tender and will be processed solely for that purpose by the Data Controller. You are entitled to obtain access to your personal data on request and to rectify any such data that is inaccurate or incomplete. If you have any queries concerning the processing of your personal data, you may address them to the Data Controller.
Details concerning the processing of your personal data are available in the privacy statement.
You have the right of recourse at any time to the European Data Protection Supervisor for matters relating to the processing of your personal data.
For the purpose of this ex-ante advertisement, the Data Controller shall be the Head of the Unit "Finance", Directorate "Support", Directorate-General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology. Any queries concerning the processing of personal data of the Candidate can be addressed to the data controller by using the e-mail address mentioned under Point "Purpose of this call for tenders" of the present ex-ante advertisement and by indicating the reference of the ex-ante advertisement.