Brussels, 10/04/2008 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission welcomes efforts by the Italian telecoms regulator (AGCOM) to lower termination rates of alternative fixed network operators (wholesale tariffs that operators charge each other to bring calls onto their networks). In a letter, it marks its support for the measures proposed, which provide for a cost-oriented approach. AGCOM suggests that the strong asymmetry currently observed in termination rates on fixed networks should be maintained throughout a transitional period and that a fixed tariff should then be set for all operators. The Commission would have preferred not to have such strong asymmetry but nonetheless welcomes the fact that the final amount proposed for termination rates of alternative fixed network operators is lower than in the decision submitted to it earlier. In practical terms, it is a matter of setting, by 1 July 2010, a symmetrical termination rate of 0.57 eurocents per minute for all fixed network operators. The Commission stresses that palliative measures must ensure sufficient transparency and ensure the legal certainty of market players, and to this end it has therefore called on AGCOM to provide specific details of its proposed glide path for reducing termination rates. Furthermore, it has invited the Italian authority to develop a cost model for calculating termination rates of alternative fixed network operators that takes account of new entrants' need to become efficient over time. We recall that the Commission had, in May 2006, approved AGCOM's measures aimed at allowing alternative operators who cannot benefit from the same large-scale economies as the traditional operator, Telecom Italia, to become effective through higher tariffs, over a four-year transitional period (see EUROPE 9200). The European Commission welcomes AGCOM's proposal but regrets the considerable disparity that persists between member states with regard to call termination rates. In order to remedy this, Commissioner Reding, who is responsible for the information society and media, said: “An EU legal instrument for greater clarity and consistency is in preparation”. (I.L.)