EU Telecom Plan Reaction: Market Leaders Critical, Upstarts Hopeful
By Dianne See Morrison - Thu 15 Nov 2007 03:58 AM PST
This week’s European Commission proposal to overhaul the telecoms industry in order to boost broadband and wireless services competition has been met by a chorus of criticism. Europe’s dominant operators, television broadcasters and even governments have denounced the proposals that, most radically, would give national regulators the power to carve up the incumbents.
- Networks: Europe’s largest carriers - including France Telecom, (NYSE: FTE) Telefonica, (NYSE: TEF) O2 and Deutsche Telecom - slammed the measure. Through ETNO, their lobby group, they said the market was plenty competitive already and dismissed the notion that additional scrutiny would benefit consumers, FT.com said.
- TV: European broadcasters, meanwhile, criticized plans to open up radio spectrum to the highest bidder, whether telecoms companies, broadcasters, or the aviation sector. Currently, different parts of the spectrum are earmarked for different uses, but the proposal would allow the highest bidder to use it as they saw fit. The European Broadcasters Union, an industry group, said that digital television screens could go blank as a result of interference between mobile phones and broadcast TV signals, according to Reuters.
- Government: The German government, meanwhile, has leapt in with its own criticism. No surprise here, as the EC and the German government are currently in a court battle over a recently passed German telecom law that effectively gives Deutsche Telekom (NYSE: DT) a two-year head start on its broadband efforts.
- Upstarts: Newer mobile phone operators including Virgin Media (NSDQ: VMED) and Tiscali applauded the idea of splitting up a dominant carrier’s services and network divisions as a way to speed up broadband competition. But they continue to denounce earlier plans to ease up on existing regulations that guarantee them fair access to those networks.
Posted in: Companies, Operators, MVNO, Virgin, O2, T-Mobile, Countries, Europe, Germany, Legal, Regulatory
