In a speech in front of operators, European Commissioner for the digital agenda Neelie Kroes has defended her approach on regulation for the fixed networks industry.
The speech at the ECTA regulatory conference in Brussels today followed a morning…
In a speech in front of operators, European Commissioner for the digital agenda Neelie Kroes has defended her approach on regulation for the fixed networks industry.
The speech at the ECTA regulatory conference in Brussels today followed a morning meeting with a number of executives from European operators, including CEOs from Iliad, Netia, Play, and Wind Telecomunicazioni.
The CEOs had once again urged Kroes to “ensure a fair balance between investment incentives for dominant operators and pro-competitive measures fostering challengers’ investments and the growth of the sector”, said ECTA, which represents European challenger operators, in a statement.
ECTA is worried about an abuse of market power by dominant players, specifically when it comes to charges for wholesale access.
At the centre of the debate is Kroes’ policy framework proposal, announced in July and intended to promote competition and ensure sufficient investment in modern networks.
At the time Kroes had to abolish earlier plans to force incumbents to lower wholesale access prices to legacy copper networks – a measure that would have favoured smaller challengers. This original plan was intended to encourage the incumbents to invest in fibre.
But in July Kroes made a U-turn, saying that “the evidence shows that lowering copper prices will not induce greater investment in very fast broadband”. She insisted the introduction of non-discrimination rules would ensure smaller competitors would have access to legacy networks on equal terms and of equal quality.
However, ECTA remains worried that incumbents could squeeze margins. In the morning meeting with Kroes the member operators tried to re-open the debate, urging her to launch a public consultation on the draft recommendation “to enable all stakeholders to consider the impact of these highly technical and complex measures on their business cases and markets”.
In parts abandoning the original script of her keynote speech to delegates at the ECTA conference, Kroes defended the framework, designed to give all European citizens internet access by 2020, with at least half of them having real high-speed access.
Explaining that self regulation did not appear to be an option, Kroes concluded:
“I had to act. And I’m not afraid to take decisions that are not pleasing everybody. I still have a couple of friends and I’m not looking for more friends”.
Kroes said that for the most part investments needed to come from the private sector, but it required the right framework which “should be an enabler and not an obstacle”.
The framework would secure “truly equivalent access by alternative operators to incumbent networks,” she said.
“Because that is probably the most important guarantee of sustainable competition. A true level playing field then allows us to focus on targeting regulation efficiently and allowing for flexibility where that would encourage investment.”
Acknowledging that the debate about copper network access prices was polarised, she also said the July framework would neither artificially force copper prices up, nor force them down. It would also give investors and potential investors predictability and stable rules, she said.
“It’s a balanced package for competition and investment.”
