TELECOMMUNICATIONS : FORMER MONOPOLIES ASK FOR 'TARGETED REGULATION'.

Incumbent operators are keeping on the pressure while the Telecoms Council, on 27 November, agreed on a vast reform of the EU's rules ensuring competition in the electronic communications market (telecoms package). They demand a "targeted regulation," especially in the context of the current financial crisis and the fall in investment in telecoms.

The current rules, defined for the copper networks in early 2000, "cannot be systematically extended to new networks, which are constructed in a competitive environment and which entail high-risk investment," they once again argued on the occasion of the annual conference of their European association, ETNO, on 12 November in Brussels.

For its part, the European Commission has always said that it had no intention whatsoever of granting a regulatory break' for the construction of these fibre optic networks, which could cost in excess of C300 billion in Europe. "Economically difficult times are therefore not a reason to suspend the principles of the competition rules," said EU Information Society Commissioner Viviane Reding, 15 days ago, to those who had come to see her to ask her to soften or even abandon the telecoms regulations due to the turmoil on the financial markets.

An interpretation challenged by the former monopolies: "ETNO is not opposed to any form of regulation and certainly has nothing against competition. It is a question of a poor interpretation of our position, which is used to justify the...