Brussels, 21/11/2011 (Agence Europe) - On Monday 21 November, the European Commission announced that it had succeeded in halting plans by the Polish telecommunications regulator (UKE), which attempted to set mobile termination rates for the Polish mobile telephony operator AERO2 without first carrying out a market analysis. In UKE's proposal, termination rates for mobile calls represented more than twice the prices offered by four of AERO2's main competitors, with no justification for the need for this gap. The arbitrary nature therefore “violates a key EU regulatory principle”, the Commission notes.
In the framework of the European rules on telecommunications, all EU regulators - including UKE -are obliged to assess the competition conditions in various sectors of the national telecommunications market. The regulators may only impose any price controls, or any other appropriate, proportionate and reasonable recourse, if their market analysis concluded that there was a lack of real competition. The Commission fears that by infringing this principle, “UKE's approach lacks predictability and creates barriers to the development of an internal market”. This is the Commission's second warning to UKE this month regarding its mobile termination rates (see EUROPE 10490). (OL/transl.fl)