The European Union yesterday passed a regulation that requires
the opening of local telephone networks to competition by 1st
January 2001 with the aim of accelerating the introduction of low
cost broadband internet access to businesses throughout Europe. The
new law requires the opening to competition of the last mile of
copper wires connecting buildings to local exchanges.06 Dec 2000
Erkii Liikanen, European Commissioner for enterprise and the information society, said of yesterday’s progress, “It will complete the liberalisation of telecommunications markets in Europe.”
Germany, Finland, the Netherlands, Denmark, Italy and Austria already grant access to the local loop networks. In the UK, BT said it expects to meet the requirements of the new law. However, the telecoms watchdog Oftel has only required BT to make its local loop available to competitors from July 2001 and only requires BT to make available 360 of its 6,000 local exchanges by January 2001. BT said that it believes it is far ahead of Germany and other countries which have opened only a small number of lines to competition.