Commission sets out broadband competition rules
Kroes hopes rules will ensure small firms have access to the market.
The European Commission today (20 September) issued competition rules for the roll-out of super-fast broadband in Europe.
It said the rules would stimulate investment while ensuring that smaller telecoms companies did not get frozen out of the market.
The rules cover fibre-optic networks, which could provide broadband at speeds over ten times faster than is possible on traditional copper networks.
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The rules set out by the Commission require operators to grant access to new networks at “cost-oriented” prices, meaning a price that reflects the cost of maintaining the network. This could be coupled in many cases with an additional premium to reflect risks taken by companies building these networks.
National regulators will generally be required to keep tight controls on the cost-oriented price and the premium, although they could relax this control in areas where competition is flourishing anyway.
“We are not choosing investment incentives over competition, or visa versa. We are playing for both,” Neelie Kroes, the European commissioner for digital agenda, said.
But the European Telecommunications Network Operators’ Association, which represents large telecoms operators, warned that the rules could stifle incentives to invest in fibre-optics.
“Pricing flexibility is essential for operators to respond to varying consumer demands,” it said. The association is calling on national regulators to make full use of the flexibility that is possible under the rules.
The rules were adopted by the Commission in the form of a recommendation to national regulators. Although not legally binding, Kroes made clear that she expects regulators to comply.
She said that regulators would have to “duly justify” any departure from the recommendation, and that she wants “all member states [to] apply the same principles.”
The Commission also today presented draft legislation on how to allocate radio spectrum that will be released when member states turn off their analogue television signals (a process that will be completed by the end of 2012). The Commission has proposed that the spectrum should be used for mobile-internet services.