Brussels, 14/09/2007 (Agence Europe) - European cable operators (Cable Europe) meeting Telecommunications Commissioner Viviane Reding on 11 September argued for a regulatory regime that encouraged competition between infrastructures. Cable Europe says that over-intrusive regulated access prices, which some member states are calling for, will not be good for infrastructure-based competition and will discourage investment in cable and alternative infrastructures. Highlighting that, today, private investment is the principal source of investment in the European e-communications market, Cable Europe says that Next Generation Networks should be handled with care, and feels that access obligations to these networks should only be imposed when it is clear that the other operators cannot make the same investment. Cable Europe feels that the functional separation (separation of network and service activities) planned by Reding could be counterproductive and could slow down the development of new networks and competition between infrastructures. It also complains about state subsidies granted to infrastructures like Digital Terrestrial, WiFi and Fibre-to-the-Home, often in highly competitive urban areas, since this creates market distortions. With cable operators investing heavily in the switch from analogue to digital television, they believe that Europe has to become more involved in the process. The European Commission is currently engaged in the review of the European e-communications framework, with the new draft expected in November.
Excessive network access regulation is slowing investment, ETNO confirms
A report by Consultants LECG, published by ETNO, the European Telecommunications Network Operators' Association, on Friday, comes to the same conclusion as the cable operators: over-regulation on access to networks significantly slows the development of new infrastructures and alternative infrastructures, leading to reduced competition between networks. In other words, regulation, which allows new operators access to existing networks at a pre-determined price, encourages the development of similar services to the detriment of innovation and choice. “Regulators should not view access regulation as a panacea,” warned Len Waverman who headed the study “Access regulation and infrastructure investment in the telecommunications sector”. The European telecoms sector is heavily regulated with the aim of maximising investment, economic growth and productivity, but the studies carried out until now which tend to back the European Commission's position, remain too general and do not assess the precise impact of some of these regulations, such as the ones which govern network access, Prof. Waverman noted. “We are concerned that instead of stimulating the deployment of new access infrastructures, the debate on the review of the EU regulatory framework so far focuses on reinforcing access regulation notably by introducing such a far-reaching remedy as functional separation,” said ETNO Director Michael Bartholomew. (il)