Brussels, 20/03/2008 (Agence Europe) - ECTA, the organisation that brings together new operators in the telecommunications sector, is delighted with the European Commission's conclusions, whose recently published report reinforces ECTA's own position: growth in the telecoms sector is mainly based on investment from new market operators. ECTA president, Innocenzo Genna, declared that, “the implementation report shows once again the repeated scare stories from incumbents about regulation underlining investment are a self-serving attempt to divert policy-makers' attention from the fact that they are seeking to preserve their near-monopolistic position”. New operators also approve the Commission's aim to make mobile termination costs more coherent. The new operators say that they only have a small customer base and currently cannot offer attractive prices because of the domination by the traditional operators. ECTA explains, however, that in the context of broadband, eight of the most competitive countries are also those where the national regulator took the firmest measures to open up the market to competition. ECTA warns that the development of fibre optics will not resolve current problems with the traditional networks, which are 85% controlled by incumbents. Mr Genna affirmed that, “We have to find some way to share infrastructure efficiently whilst allowing a fair return for those investing”. ECTA also shares the Commission's concerns about the cost of roaming data transfer costs but believes that the solution should be through targeted action of the pan-European mobile services market. ECTA believes that the benefits created by unbundling are undeniable and cites the example of the United Kingdom, which applied this method and obtained healthy returns: the continued willingness of competitors to invest, lower prices and better services for consumers. (I.L.)