ECTA WARNS OF THREAT TO BROADBAND COMPETITION FROM EU PARLIAMENT TELECOMS PROPOSALS
Brussels, 08 July 2008 – The European Competitive Telecoms Association, the pro competition group, gave a cautious welcome to proposals from the European Parliament to amend the EU Telecoms Framework, but warned that many of the amendments approved by the European Parliament’s Industry Committee on 7 July protect and favour dominant firms at the expense of competition in the telecoms sector. ECTA cautioned that, if adopted by the Parliament and endorsed by other European institutions, the advantages gained by the dominant firms under the proposed revisions to the EU legislation could undermine competition in high-speed broadband services.
Innocenzo Genna, Chairman of ECTA, said: “Consumers and businesses in Europe have reaped the benefits of lower telephone prices, ever-increasing broadband speeds, more investment and innovative triple-play offers that have been brought to them as a result of competition in the telecoms market. But these benefits, many of which are due to effective wholesale regulation in the sector, can disappear just as quickly as they arrived, if policy-makers make too many concessions to dominant firms.”
One of the key areas in which ECTA has been seeking support is for local loop unbundling rules to apply to fibre as well as the existing copper network.
