Brussels, 09/09/2008 (Agence Europe) - Commissioner Viviane Reding wants to deploy fibre optics throughout the European Union and stimulate competition in new high-bit rate networks. The draft recommendation of the commissioner for the information society and media (which she is expected to submit for public consultation in around ten days' time, in view of its adoption by the end of the year) will again lead to a gnashing of teeth among the dominant operators because she wants to compel them (in exchange for compensation) to open up their fibre optic networks to competition, as they had to do for copper. Reding believes that leaving the market to evolve on its own would lead to the reconstruction of the old monopolies in the new fibre optic networks. The commissioner is convinced that only a regulatory environment will encourage investment in new networks and stimulate competition. In the ECTA annual conference on 25 June, the commissioner said: “There is now an increasing danger in the context of new generation network access of seeing a stronger resurgence than in the past of dominant positions…Regulatory guidance is appropriate in order to promote investment and maintain competition between infrastructure networks and service providers in the broadband sector”. The commissioner acknowledges that this sector requires significant investment and that operators who make risks in it should benefit from a fair return on investment. Addressing ECTA members, Reding spoke about a “risk bonus” mechanism that aims to enable operators investing in fibre optics, in exchange for access to their networks, to obtain a price that reflects the amount of their investment. At the time, she mentioned a bonus of around 15% but did not go into any detail. The current version of the recommendation is seeking to be more precise: operators will therefore be able to invoice access to their networks for a price that is equivalent to 10-12% of the investment made over a five year period including the levels currently set by national regulators for copper networks (2-3%). The risk bonus will therefore reach a total of 12-15%. The European Regulators Group does not appear, however, to be convinced by the commissioner's proposals and considers that the European Commission's text goes too far, particularly on network access tariffs, given the variety of different national situations. ERG said that with regard to the degree of harmonisation to be aimed for, “the draft recommendation is too ambitious”. (I.L./transl.rh)