Reding to take on telecom firms through new EU body
MARK BEUNDERMAN
12.11.2007 @ 09:28 CET
EU telecoms commissioner Viviane Reding will on Tuesday (13 November) propose an EU regulatory authority for the bloc's heavily fragmented mobile phone and internet markets, a move likely to stir controversy among big operators in the sector.
The commissioner in media interviews over the weekend called for a new Brussels-based authority overseeing the 27 EU states' national telecom regulators.
"I want to revolutionise the European telecom market," says the EU telecom commissioner (Photo: EUobserver.com)
The newly created body would have the power to propose the splitting up of big companies' network infrastructure and their customer services, as a radical measure to force telecom giants such as France Telecom to open their networks to smaller competitors.
"I want to revolutionise the European telecom market. And that's why we need a European supervisory authority", Ms Reding told weekly Der Spiegel in comments quoted by German papers.
The 27 national regulatory authorities, which would continue to exist under the plans, would through the new EU body get new tools "for example through the possibility of functionally separating the running of a network and [the offering of] services of a dominant provider," the commissioner said.
"Functional separation" would however only be a last-resort measure to force greater competition, she added.
The proposals, to be presented by Ms Reding on Tuesday, could hit big French and German operators in particular, with German paper Handelsblatt writing that several member states including Germany are sceptical about the plans.
The idea to split big firms' networks from their services resembles measures proposed by the European Commission in the energy sector earlier this year, with competition commissioner Neelie Kroes pushing for an "unbundling" of energy giants' production and distribution activities.
These plans also sparked fierce resistance from several member states, including France and Germany.
In internal commission debates on Ms Reding's telecom reform, Ms Kroes reportedly warned her colleague against copying her energy model in the telecoms sector, saying the telecoms market is already more competitive. Ms Reding's proposal was subsequently diluted, the International Herald Tribune writes.
In an interview with the same paper, Ms Reding said she wanted the EU telecommunications market to function like that of the United States.
"In the US, you have got one market, one network from east to west, from San Francisco to New York," she stated. "Here in Europe you have 27 scattered markets with 27 regulators with rules which sometimes oppose each other."
But the paper quotes Jacques Champeaux, director of regulatory affairs for France Telecom, as saying the planned changes went "in the wrong direction" and posed "a real risk for next generation networks."
Ms Reding already took on the telecom sector earlier this year when she forced firms to slash roaming tariffs for consumers using their mobile phones abroad.
EU legislation has pushed down costs for phoning abroad by more than half since this summer, Ms Reding claimed this summer.
