Leased lines are used for high-speed internet access, for
communicating with clients, colleagues and customers, for
transacting business and for communicating within organisations,
via e-mail, file-sharing, information systems, telephone and
fax.
In general, leased lines are provided by traditional telecom
operators. New market entrants have their own networks but need to
link their customers' premises to them. This link is called a
'leased line part circuit' and is usually provided by the
incumbent.
These links need to be reasonably priced at the wholesale level
to generate a competitive leased lines retail market and for
competitive downstream 'knock-on' effects. However, the Commission
has discovered that the substantial variations in wholesale prices
that exist across the
EU
do not directly reflect the
cost of supplying the leased lines.
The Commission has therefore issued a recommendation, detailing
the "best current practices" in wholesale leased line pricing, and
giving competitive market benchmark prices for the whole
EU
.
The idea is that, while recommendations are not binding on
Member States, national regulators will use the recommendations to
improve competition in their local leased line markets.
"Competitive pricing of leased lines will expand the range and
cut the costs of electronic communications services that are made
available to business users and end-users across the
EU
, and in particular to small and medium-sized
enterprises, which have much to gain from lower prices for business
services offered by operators making use of these inputs,"
explained Information Society and Media Commissioner Viviane
Reding.
