TELECOMMUNICATIONS : COMPETITORS WARN AGAINST RETURN OF MONOPOLIES.

In a new report, to be made public on 28 January, alternative operators on the European telecoms market, represented by ECTA, urge the EU to guard against a return of monopolies by means of their deployment of high-speed optical fibre networks. Caution is particularly important in the context of the ongoing economic crisis. They single out the growing market share of the ex-monopolies, particularly in Spain.

Britain and the Netherlands are still the most competitive states. They are also the two countries that apply the most rules, notes the ECTA. Challengers are still struggling to gain a foothold on the Polish and Czech markets. The association is most set on seeing the EU keep up regulatory pressure as the sector is faced with the task of developing its new optical fibre networks. It should oblige the former monopolies - the leading investors in fibre - to open the future networks to competition, as it did for copper networks. The ECTA denounces the "disparate approaches" taken by the member states in terms of regulation, from "clearly restrictive" access in Spain to "unbundling" of fibre in the Netherlands, offering a more diversified choice.

According to the European Commission's figures cited by the ECTA, Telefonica has grown from a 51.5% to a 57% market share in two years. The EU executive has been extremely critical of a Spanish proposal for deregulation, moreover. The Comision del Mercado de las Telecomunicaciones (CMT) intends to regulate access to the high-speed wholesale market (between operators) only up to a certain data rate...