25 April Telecoms Informal

Date: 02/05/1996

TELECOMS ministers devoted most of their meeting to a discussion on how all citizens, from the remotest islander to the urban businessman, might be guaranteed cheap access to a phone once telecoms markets are opened to competition in 1998. Sweden, Finland, the UK and the Netherlands all sought to allay fears expressed by other EU member states that liberalisation would spell the end of universal service. According to the UK, it costs less than 1&percent; of phone firm revenues to ensure that all citizens are hooked up to a phone. The European Commission proposed a relatively narrow definition of the minimum services which phone firms should provide, saying everyone should be entitled to lines capable of carrying fax and phone services. Belgian Telecoms Minister Elio Di Rupo argued, on the other hand, that lines should also be capable of carrying sophisticated multimedia services. The Italian presidency said it would present a draft resolution on universal service at the next formal meeting of telecoms ministers in Brussels on 29 May.

PROMPTED by fears that exposure to unsuitable material on the Internet might encourage wayward behaviour in minors, ministers have decided to look into ways of regulating the information society. “Many member states perceive the need now for some discipline, some kind of regulatory framework,” said Italian Telecoms Minister Agostino Gambino after the informal meeting in Bologna. France called for a world-wide agreement on moral principles governing the Internet, while Industry Commissioner Martin Bangemann sought to reassure industry that the Commission did not want to stunt the growth of the information society by imposing too many regulations on it.

ITALY has promised to draw up a compromise text on the opening of postal services to competition, in a bid to get agreement among member states as to the pace and extent of liberalisation. Gambino said he hoped to give fresh impetus to the stalled talks in the coming weeks. But he added that Italy would not tinker with either the timetable or the scope of the liberalisation proposals drawn up by the Commission.