The European Commission published the recommendations of a study, carried out by Ecorys Netherlands, that evaluates which sectors of the telecoms market should be could be regulated ex-ante by national telecoms regulators to address structural competition problems.
This advice will feed into the Commission’s review of the 2007 Recommendation, which defines the wholesale and retail telecoms markets which are likely to require regulation of a dominant operator by National Regulatory Authorities (NRAs).
Vice President Neelie Kroes said: “The findings of the study will help us to update the list of the relevant markets, which will shape the scope of national regulatory interventions in the coming years.”
Some highlights of the study:
- The retail market for access to fixed telephony and the wholesale market for call origination on the fixed public telephone network should be removed from the list.
- Fixed and mobile termination markets should be maintained on the on the list.
- The boundaries of the local loop unbundling market should be refined and clarified.
- Two separate wholesale markets for bitstream access should be defined to better respond to the different needs observed at the retail level of mass and business market.
- The report suggests that it should be up to individual NRAs to consider whether the wholesale business bitstream market should form a single market with the terminating segments of leased lines.
http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_MEMO-13-875_en.htm