Brussels, 29/06/2001 (Agence Europe) - The ECTA (European Competitive Telecommunications Association) has just published a report on the sector in which it defends interests at European level. One of the things which emerges from the document is that the companies want to see the European Commission play a more major part in regulation.
The ECTA report underlines that companies in the sector are overly optimistic when it comes to evaluating their growth, that they suffer and will continue to suffer from a shortage of human resources (engineers in particular) and that national "regulatory" bodies are not independent and are too close to the well-established operators, something which hinders competition. The firms consulted believe that the decisions which affect several countries should be taken by the European Commission rather than individually by the Member States. Although they are hostile towards the red tape, they feel that rules enabling them to operate beyond the borders of Member States must be established and implemented. The majority of companies think that the EU must be involved in industrial issues, in particular those affecting 3G licences, and 22% of the them want action to break up the traditional monopolies. The firms also came up with other suggestions for taxation, network-sharing and standardisation of protocols throughout the Member States of the EU. The full text of this report can be consulted at the following address:
http: /http://www.ectaportal.com/ecta2001/regulatory/atlantic.htm