Brussels, 01/06/2005 (Agence Europe) - ARCEP, the French regulator for electronic communications, has informed the European Commission that it is resolved to deepen its analysis of the French market for access and call origination on public mobile telephone networks, in light of recent market developments. On 14 April ARCEP submitted its conclusions to the Commission which will impose rules on French mobile phone users which respond to the access demands from virtual mobile operators (“MVNO”). In the meantime, several MVNO contracts have been concluded with SFR and Orange, which may make the ARCEP conclusions obsolete. The latter, underlines the Commission, will examine the nature of these access contracts to see if they “provide a strong stimulus to the wholesale and retail markets and increase competition between service providers”. A detailed examination of the barriers to competition resulting from the process of number portability and cancellation clauses in post-paid contracts is planned. While waiting for the new conclusions from the French regulator the Commission also notes that, according to ARCEP and the French competition authority whose opinion had been sought in advance, the retail market is characterised by rather weak competitive pressure. In this respect, ARCEP has declared its intention to send the Commission its quarterly state of play analysis. ARCEP's approach responds to provisions in Article 7 of the regulatory framework on electronic communications stipulating that Member State regulatory authorities should proceed to a market analysis (18 have been identified by the Commission) in order to check if there is effective competition and to regulate those where such competition is not ensured.