Broadband blow for operators

The telecoms industry is lobbying the European Parliament to look at investment in next-generation networks as MEPs prepare to debate a proposed overhaul of telecoms rules at the end of this month (29 January).

Firms are questioning why Viviane Reding, the European commissioner in charge of telecoms, is waiting until this summer to issue guidelines on investment in new networks, when key issues that will directly affect corporate research and development plans are being addressed now.

They fear that the commissioner’s proposals to force firms to split their network and services arms, a measure intended to improve access to infrastructure for new entrants, could act as a disincentive to investment. Firms are irked that guidelines aimed at reassuring the sector have been divorced from the bulk of the reform.

"The main point would be the issue of investments. The Commission had promised to do some guidelines by the summer for investments in high- speed networks. Why is this outside the review?" said an industry insider.

"It is important that everything the Commission proposes is seen in the light of investments in new networks. It is a little bit bizarre," he said.

Member states including Germany, Spain and France are sceptical about plans to change the structure of their national champions. The UK, which successfully applied the approach to incumbent British Telecom in 2005, is more supportive, but has drawn the line at Reding’s plans to create a new EU regulatory body, the European Electronic Communications Market Authority, which would swallow the existing European Regulators Group (ERG).

The UK believes that the ERG, which brings together all 27 national regulators, should be allowed to get on with its work. "The ERG has made a lot of progress in last 12 months. There is a view that it could be a more efficient and quicker way of getting good levels of co-ordination," said a spokesman for UK regulator Ofcom.

French Socialist MEP Catherine Trautmann, who will be reporting on the matter for the European Parliament, backs the UK’s position on the ERG. Last year, she criticised the European Commission for having been too "self-centred" when drafting proposals.

She also said that it was "no surprise" that incumbents had been targeted given that competition had been proclaimed "a sort of one-size-fits-all solution, the one silver bullet to solve problems of price, investment, diversity, innovation [and] access".

Proposals on mechanisms for trading in spectrum, a vital resource for electronic communications, will also figure heavily in the debate. Parliament’s committee on industry, research and energy will discuss the overall review on 29 January.

The telecoms industry is lobbying the European Parliament to look at investment in next-generation networks as MEPs prepare to debate a proposed overhaul of telecoms rules at the end of this month (29 January).