Unbundled Access

Unbundled access is an often practiced form of regulation during liberalization, where new entrants of the market (challengers) are offered access to facilities of the incumbent, that are hard to duplicate (e.g. for technical or business case reasons). Its applications are mostly found in network-oriented industries (like telecommunication, mail and energy) and often concerns the last mile.

Unbundled access differs from Bitstream access in that the incumbent offers fewer services at the last mile and the backhaul is not a part of the services.