Brussels, 21/01/2005 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission has accepted the request from the Irish authority for regulation of the telecommunications market, ComReg (Commission fro Communications Regulation), to bring in more competition on the national market dominated by two operators. After examining the conclusions forwarded to it by ComReg, the Commission considers that there is on the Irish market a dominant position held by Vodafone and mmO2, which alone hold 90% of the market. It notes that these two operators must open their networks up to competition. On Friday, the Commission sent a positive response to the request for notification that had been sent to it by the Irish authorities on 10 December last. This procedure complies with the provisions of Article 7 of the framework directive on telecommunications that calls on relevant national authorities to examine the competition situation on the telecommunication market, to notify the Commission of its observations and to foresee adequate measures in order to restore good market functioning (“consultation mechanism”). “Europe will only become more competitive if we ensure that there is effective competition in crucial markets such as the electronic communications markets”, Information Society and Audiovisual Commissioner Viviane Reding said. “I expect that the measures proposed by the Irish regulator will increase competition and will lead to lower prices for consumers in Ireland”, she added, specifying that, as a whole, access to mobile phone networks is generally sufficiently open in the European Union. Martin Selmayr, the Commissioner's spokesman, stressed the specific nature of the measure, which only concerns Ireland, and its temporary nature. The Commission has not set a timetable for these new measures but states that they should be the subject of review once competition has taken hold, in a laps of time that it estimates at one or two years. The fact that there are two operators is not in itself an obstacle to competition, the Commission states.
According to Reuters, mm02 has refuted the statements made by the Irish authorities on the dominant position held with Vodafone, and has decided to appeal the decision.