TELECOMS REGULATORS ARE 'WEAK', SAYS TELE2.

• Position: Brief Article

Competition authorities are doing more to challenge former telecoms monopolies than telecoms regulators, according to Swedish telecoms operator Tele2. The company - which says it is the only true pan-European operator not to be an incumbent anywhere - claims that former monopolists are exploiting the delayed introduction of the new telecoms regulatory framework to maintain and increase their market shares. Tele2's regulatory director Jan Tjernell criticised regulators in the Czech Republic, Poland and Latvia as "weak". "Many countries have regulators who don't know what to do", he told reporters on March 3. National regulatory authorities were "not as independent as we would like," he said.

Mr Tjernell was speaking at the launch of a Tele2 report which blames former incumbents for many of the problems in the telecoms market because they still own the access networks for fixed telephony. He suggested that regulators should consider splitting fixed-line networks from telecoms...