Brussels, 16/10/2007 (Agence Europe) - The Italian telecoms authority AGCOM believes that functional separation of the Telecom Italia network, foreseen to start at the end of this year, is the best way to promote competition on the Italian market, along the lines of what has been achieved in the United Kingdom. This is what Corrado Calabro, the President of AGCOM, said on Tuesday morning after a meeting with EU Information Society and Media Commissioner Viviane Reding and Roberto Viola, President of the European Regulators Group ERG. Calabro therefore has a meeting of minds with the Commissioner, who believes functional separation of telecoms operators is a priority area of the reform of the telecoms market she will be unveiling on 13 November 2007. Reding, Calabro and Viola also discussed the uneven tariffs for terminating landline telephone calls (call termination is the transmission cost invoiced by one operator to another for transferring the call on their own network). Commissioner Reding and the Italian watchdog agreed to end this unevenness in Italy in 2010. The Commissioner stressed that she generally hoped to see progress at ERG in gradually putting a stop to this unevenness in the near future. Viviane Reding has already met the President of the French telecoms watchdog ARCEP and is planning to meet other national regulators before unveiling her reform plans in November. (I.L.)