The Commissioner was speaking at a Paris conference where she
said she wanted to look at anti-competitive behaviour in the
telecoms industry in Europe. The probe would not be possible until
early next year after the completion of banking and energy
investigations.
The EU published a report in February which said that there is
no effective competition for telecoms services in most European
countries. Though the EU is pushing for former monopolies to do
more to open up markets to competition, the findings of that report
suggests that the policy has not been successful.
Meanwhile the European Commission is expected to announce that
it will reduce the number of areas of the telecoms business that it
will regulate from 18 to 11. The move will lift regulation for
almost all retail phone calls.
The Commission will continue to keep control of the wholesale
telecoms market, according to reports of a new telecoms regulation
plan to be unveiled this week. The Commission is said to be still
concerned that former monopoly operators are not sharing their
networks openly enough through wholesale agreements and prices.
The Commission will note that the market for international calls
is competitive, but that that does not extend to domestic fixed
line services. It is also expected to extend its regulation to
mobile phone services for the first time, particularly over the
cost of text messages.
