The EC aims to nail down govts.’ agreement on its proposed intern...

on the proposal scheduled this and next month, and a plenary vote set for May, the EC said there’s “broad agreement” on the aims and plan to regulate wholesale and retail roaming fees among the EC, EP and Telecom Council. Current discussion centers on how the goals can be met through regulation and what price caps should be set, the EC said. Information Society & Media Comr. Viviane Reding is pushing to have legislation in place by mid-year. In a position paper submitted to the EC, the European Competitive Telecom Assn. (ECTA) noted that at the same time the EC, EP and Council are looking to regulate roaming prices, the Commission is considering deregulating mobile services, “a view ECTA believes is contradictory and premature.” High roaming prices are symptomatic of the inadequate competition in the supply of many mobile phone services, leaving operators free to exploit national fragmentation, the group said. One way to deal with the problem would be to allow alternative networks to operate as mobile virtual network operators to link Europe’s balkanized markets into a pan- European service, it said. “There is still far too much reliance on legacy services in the mobile sector,” said Ilsa Godlovitch, head of regulatory affairs. Sergio Antocicco, International Telecom Users Group chmn., said: “Businesses are unable to obtain the seamless pan-European converged fixed and mobile telecom services that are vital for improved effectiveness and productivity, and for economic growth.” E- communications providers meanwhile urged ministers to take steps to boost growth in Europe’s flagging telecom sector. Telcos back Reding’s plan to ease regulation on some retail markets and end preemptive regulation of markets as they become competitive, said the European Telecom Network Operators’ Assn. (ETNO). But “the vast majority” of providers worry that despite increased competition, debate on the EC review of its e-communications regulatory framework continues to focus on extending current rules or adding new remedies such as functional and structural separation of dominant telcos, to the detriment of would-be investors in new networks, ETNO Dir. Michael Bartholomew said.