TELECOMMUNICATIONS : OPERATORS DEBATE DIRECTION OF TELECOMS PACKAGE REVISION.

Competition between telecoms operators versus investments in new networks: as debate on the revision of the telecoms package continues in Brussels, the incumbent and new operators continue to engage in heated discussions over network access issues.

The debate has focused for weeks on the creation of a European telecoms authority, combined with strengthening of the European Commission's powers over the national regulators. The operators, however, are arguing over the introduction of unbundling, whereby a regulator may impose independent systems management on the incumbent operators as a means of providing equal access to competitors.

So what are the aims of revision of the EU rules? Is the process meant to "encourage risky investments in new networks," bearing in mind that the sector is "highly competitive and fully liberalised," asked Michael Bartholomew, director of ETNO, the association of incumbent operators. He spoke to the press on 26 February in Brussels on the eve of a public hearing by the European Parliament's Industry Committee.

Or is the idea to "strengthen the power of the national regulators," to ensure that new entrants have access to existing networks, as recommended by ECTA, the European Competitive Telecommunications Association (new entrants).

For Bartholomew, the roll-out of new access networks via new technologies such as optical fibre cannot be taken for granted. Europe "lags behind" the Asian countries and the United States, he...

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