The European Commission approved a revised proposal allowingDeutsche Telekom AGto upgrade its network using vectoring technology, the EC announced July 19.

The new proposal now contains measures to help protect rivaloperators from market abuse, as well as ensure the quality of networkperformance, yet the EC expects further improvements to ensure competition.

German telecoms watchdog BNetzA is required to submitits detailed plans regarding the technical parameters and product prices to theEC by early fall.

Deutsche Telekom's rivals have long for the adoption of fiber optictechnology instead of vectoring. EU commissioner for the digital economy andsociety Günther Oettinger previously said vectoring technology only works whenapplied to a whole bundle of copper cables.