Brussels, 30/05/2001 (Agence Europe) - The opening of the telecommunications sector continued to push down prices for communications in a significant manner in many countries during the 2000-2001 period, reveals a study by the National Utility Service (NUS). The situation of prices in 14 countries scrutinised by this study is not homogenous. In the area of national calls, 9 countries are in a position of lowering prices (Belgium, Spain, Germany, Sweden, Italy, the United Kingdom, Denmark, the Netherlands and France) and 4 in a position of increasing (Australia, South Africa, the United States, Finland). Canada remains stable. In Europe, only Finland experienced an increase (8.8%), while prices have significantly fallen in Germany (39.8%) and in Belgium (55.9%) due to competition. Sweden is the cheapest country. For international calls, the fall in prices, generalised, reached an average of 23%. With a significant exception, which nevertheless opened the way for the world deregulating movement in 1984, experiencing a price increase for consumers, both on the national level (5.3%) as international (6.8%), which brings it to the third place in the most expensive countries in the world, while the NUS classifies it in tenth position for local calls.
Within the European Union, the fall in national and international communications prices is general, but it seems to go hand n hand with a rise in local call charges (France, Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark and Finland). French companies suffer from a very significant increase (40.5%), and France has become the second most expensive country after Belgium. The Netherlands recorded an increase of 34.5%. The Service asks the question of knowing if European consumers will accept higher prices for local calls in exchange for a reduction in prices for long distance calls. It notes that if the development of competition follows its natural course in Europe, mainly due to mergers and consolidation on the markets, the consumer associations and trade unions could make themselves heard. The investigators note that deregulation is accompanied by a climate of growing confusion which can, according to Jacques Claudel, Director General of NUS France, lead to a reflex of wait and see by the final user. For the consumers and companies, confronted by increasingly numerous and varying prices and services, telecommunications will no longer keep itself to a single connection. In the United States, the disappearance of the pricing has ended any permanent point of reference allowing the consumer to determine the competitive advantage offered by the supplier. The service concludes that the liberalisation of the markets has produced effects, but that it is not the only factor in the development of costs. It feels that the "price war" may lead: 1) to a disappearance of "small" operators, 2) a fall in profit margins for operators, which then focus on the development of global telecommunications services including data transmission, internet access or electronic commerce.