The Electronic Communications Office ( ECOI) conducts market analyses of telecommunications submarkets. Such analyses are carried out on wholesale telecommunications, but wholesale is the term used for transactions where the telecommunications operators purchase services from each other.

When a telecommunications operator buys services from another such company, it is often for the purpose of providing something that the buyer needs to create the services that the company then sells to its customers, who are usually homes and businesses.

Sales to such end users, i.e. households and businesses, are then called retail telecommunications services.

If a telecommunications operator has services that are necessary for other operators to be able to offer their retail sales and there is insufficient competition for these services, such undertaking may be designated as having significant market power regarding these services.

The Electronic Communications Office may impose obligations on telecommunications operators that are designated to have significant market power. The obligations may be one, some or all the following:

To enforce the price obligation, accounting separation is important so that fair prices can be determined, but models of costs can also be used in the relevant activity or compared with similar services in neighboring countries.

The Electronic Communications Office may request that a company that is subject to pricing obligations carry out a cost analysis that demonstrates the cost of the service in question. The company's cost analysis is then reviewed by the Electronic Communications Office.