Further guidance on how EU states should regulate their fibre networks will be subject to consultation “as soon as possible in 2011”, European Commissioner for the Digital Agenda Neelie Kroes said yesterday.
The guidance will cover the management of…
Further guidance on how EU states should regulate their fibre networks will be subject to consultation “as soon as possible in 2011”, European Commissioner for the Digital Agenda Neelie Kroes said yesterday.
The guidance will cover the management of wholesale prices charged by infrastructure providers, Kroes told a conference organised by the European Competitive Telecommunication Association (ECTA) in Brussels.
It will also outline ways to prevent vertically integrated network operators from prioritizing their own downstream business or discriminating against third parties wishing to access their networks.
The European Commission unveiled its first recommendations in September on how to regulate the roll-out of superfast broadband across Europe. The EC’s key principles included a call for regulators to promote fully unbundled services.
“I hope you agree that we have created a text that protects the competitive process, while accepting that we also need to incentivise fibre investment amongst both your members and incumbent operators,” Kroes told the ECTA conference.
“We developed this approach always with our ultimate goal in mind: to deliver tangible benefits to European consumers. The recommendation is only step one. But further steps are necessary to make the difference between words and real investments.
“The investment itself is largely to be made by the private sector of course. But certainly the Commission has a role to create the best conditions for these investments.”