Brussels, 15/12/2008 (Agence Europe) - On Monday 15 December, the European Commission announced it had noted the decision by Poland and Italy to carry out functional separation of their dominant operators, TPSA and Telecom Italia, respectively. The Commission is to study the notification given by the two member states and announce its decision as soon as its examination has been completed, said Martin Selmayr, spokesman for Commissioner Viviane Reding.
The Polish regulator announced that the procedure would be launched on Monday 15 September, stressing that the decision to separate the activities of TPSA into two entities - one for networking and the other for commercial activity - had been decided in order to remedy the operator's dominant position. Although accepted by the Commission, the separation between TPSA activities will not be effective until 2011.
Last week, Italy gave notification of a similar decision concerning Telecom Italia upon an order from the Commission. Agcom, the Italian regulatory authority, had in fact omitted to give the Commission details concerning the plan foreseen by Telecom Italia which, to ensure equal treatment in access to the network, had suggested creating an autonomous and separate division of the group's commercial functions, responsible for managing access. The plan was accepted by Agcom. The Commission is expected to give its verdict for Italy by the end of this year, said Mr Selmayr. If it accepts the measures, Italy and Poland will join the United Kingdom as being countries that have applied functional separation as a remedy to bring more competition to their markets. (I.L./transl.jl)