Brussels, 23/10/2012 (Agence Europe) - Alternative telecommunications operators should benefit from a stable framework to ensure a maximum return on the investment they make in high speed networks. This framework should also preserve the role of catalyst that these operators exercise on competitive offers for consumers and investment in super fast networks, ECTA (the association for European alternative operators) repeated on 22 October.
Representatives from several telecoms companies that are members of ECTA met Commissioner for the Digital Agenda Neelie Kroes on Monday to exchange views on investment in the new generation networks. They stressed the importance of investing in these networks from now on so as to ensure the future of telecoms across Europe, and the key role played by alternative operators in the expansion of these networks. “As the Commission is working on a stable regulatory environment to last until 2020, it is important that policy makers recognise that new entrants have been so far the main drivers of fibre investments and the take-up of advanced broadband by consumers”, said the chairman of ECTA, Tom Ruhan. Chief financial officers from Iliad/Free, Bouygues Telecom, Fastweb, Wind and Netia gave Kroes recent statistics proving the alternative operators' resolve to invest massively in fibre. According to the figures, these companies represented 55% of the total sum invested in the new networks. Consequently they call on the European Commission to implement a more favourable regulatory framework, enabling them to pursue their investment on an equal footing with the old historical operators. “A fair balance is to be found that ensures equal opportunities for dominant and challenger investors and protects the hard earned benefits of competition in the market today. The Digital Agenda's take-up targets cannot be met without ensuring a sustainable economic space for competition in the long term”, said the director of ECTA, Erzsebet Fitori.
More than ten years after the liberalisation of the telecoms sector, alternative operators complain that discrimination persists, in their opinion, between them and the old historical operators. They criticise the pricing abuses of the dominant historical operators for access to existing networks. Alternative operators dedicate a large part of their cash flows to paying for their access to the copper networks, enabling them to play the game of competition fairly, ECTA points out. The association calls on Kroes to strengthen non-discrimination obligations so as to create a really competitive environment. (IL/transl.fl)