TELECOMMUNICATIONS : EXEC APPROVES ITALIAN REGULATOR'S PLANS IN LEASED LINES MARKET.

The European Commission gave the green light to Italian draft plans to deregulate terminating segments of leased lines in Italy, it stated on 7 December 2009. However, the Italian regulator, AGCOM, is requested to maintain the regulation of certain connections, those of mobile operators, while they have replicated Telecom Italia's infrastructure. Leased lines are the connections that allow operators to transmit calls and data from one location to another.

For Commissioner Viviane Reding, who will leave telecommunications for justice and fundamental rights, such a decision is the result of a strict application of the EU rules on competition. But this thousandth notification to which the European Commission has responded on national measures is above all an occasion to warn the former monopolies again: with the new telecoms package "comments from the Commission, serious doubts letters or veto decisions will...