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EU telecoms regulators should adopt single approach to wholesale pricing, says Commissioner


The European Commission wants telecoms regulators across the EU to adopt a uniform approach to access for smaller firms to incumbent operators' networks. It said that a consistent policy across Europe would spur investment in networks.

Regulators enforce rules that mean that smaller telecoms firms can access networks by major carriers on a similar basis to the retail arms of those carriers. But European Commission vice president Neelie Kroes has said she wants regulators across the EU to adopt a more consistent approach to how much companies are charged for this. 

"We need regulatory consistency in all Member States to ensure a level playing field for telecoms across the whole EU, in which competition and investment can thrive," Neelie Kroes, European Commission vice president, said. "This will reassure markets that putting money into fibre networks is a safe and profitable investment." 

The European Commission has opened two public consultations it said could help shape future guidance on the regulation of shared telecoms services. 

Under the EU telecoms rules national regulators can insist that big telecoms operators do not discriminate against competitors in favour of their own retail business. Regulators can force the dominant firms to share access to their network infrastructure, but regulators "apply significantly divergent approaches" to how smaller telecoms firms should be charged for that access, leading to "major differences" in the price for wholesale access in different EU countries, a European Commission statement said. 

"The resulting regulatory fragmentation not only jeopardises much needed investments in new technologies but also hampers the evolution of the Single European telecoms market and the development of pan-European operators," the Commission said. 

"Regulatory consistency is crucial to ensuring that telecoms operators have predictability and regulatory clarity, particularly when considering the large scale investments needed to roll-out ultra-fast optical fibre-based networks. These 'next generation' networks are essential to meet the Digital Agenda for Europe goal of giving every European access to fast and ultra-fast broadband by 2020," the Commission said. 

Last year the Commission set out "ambitious targets for broadband" with the aim of ensuring all EU citizens have "basic broadband coverage" by 2013 and that by 2020 all EU citizens have access to at "fast broadband coverage at 30 megabits per second". In addition, its 2020 target aims for at least half of European households to be accessing broadband services at speeds of 100 megabits per second, a Commission statement at the time said. 

Under the EU's Telecoms Package of reforms, which member states had to implement into national laws by 25 May this year, the Commission increased powers to ensure that regulatory activity is coordinated. 

If the Commission finds "divergences in the way national regulators implement the telecom rules, which may create a barrier to the Single Market" the Commission can make recommendations to regulators which they are obliged to take "utmost account" of. Two years after publishing its recommendation the Commission can "adopt a binding decision on the harmonised application of the provisions of the framework, including the remedies imposed on dominant operators," according to the Commission. 

"The first consultation concerns non-discriminatory access for alternative operators to the infrastructure and services of dominant telecom operators," the Commission statement said. This consultation "examines in particular how the relationship between copper and fibre access prices can affect the incentives to invest in new fibre-based networks," it said. 

"The second concerns the way national regulators calculate prices that operators have to pay for this wholesale access (cost-orientation remedies). The results will help the Commission to draft recommendations for a consistent, investment-friendly application of non-discrimination and price control remedies," it said. 

Telecoms companies, national telecoms regulators, EU member state Governments, consumer groups and others have until 28 November to respond to the consultations, the Commission said. 

"When applied by national telecoms regulators, the Commission's guidance will ensure that operators will be able to buy broadband access products, such as unbundled local loops or 'Bitstream', in a similar way across the EU," the Commission said. 

"This will enable operators, ultimately, to offer their own competitive retail services to consumers on equivalent conditions," it said.

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