BRUSSELS -- The U.K. has chosen a “desperate solution” to the problem of assuring British Telecom (BT) rivals equal access to the incumbent’s networks, said France Telecom (FT) Exec. Vp-Regulatory Affairs Jacques Champeaux. Earlier this year, BT, facing an antitrust probe, vowed to provide what the U.K. telecom regulator calls “equivalence of access” to competitors. As part of that, the telco is creating a new entity assigned to ensure alternative providers are offered the same wholesale services and products as BT’s own retail arm. Speaking Fri. at the European Competitive Telecom Assn.’s regulatory conference here, however, Champeaux said in the long run structural separation isn’t practical.
Dugie Standeford
Dugie Standeford, European Correspondent, Communications Daily and Privacy Daily, is a former lawyer. She joined Warren Communications News in 2000 to report on internet policy and regulation. In 2003 she moved to the U.K. and since then has covered European telecommunications issues. She previously covered the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration and intellectual property law matters. She has a degree in psychology from Duke University and a law degree from the University of Tulsa College of Law.
BRUSSELS -- Legal challenges to national telecom competition rules pose a growing threat, regulators and industry representatives said Thurs. at the European Competitive Telecom Assn. (ECTA) annual regulatory conference here. As regulators analyze 18 markets under the new e-communications regulatory framework (NRF) and impose remedies on dominant players, many orders are being appealed by incumbents and new entrants alike. Widely varying decision times across the European Union (EU) -- and differing judicial approaches -- are leaving competition questions unresolved and investments delayed. The situation has become so troublesome the European Commission (EC) has been asked to intervene.
BRUSSELS -- European telecom has a “stark choice” -- regulation or stagnation, the European Competitive Telecom Assn. (ECTA) said Thurs. Investment suffers when regulators don’t tackle dominant firms, while nations that open markets to competition have “stormed ahead,” ECTA said at its 6th annual regulatory conference here. Its 2005 regulatory scorecard’s findings reinforce calls to spurn the sort of “regulatory holiday” on fiber Germans are debating.
Opponents of extending broadcasting copyright protections to webcasting complained Wed. of being presented “three doors that all lead to the same room” by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). WIPO’s Standing Committee on Copyright & Related Rights (SCCR) met this week to discuss the latest draft of an updated broadcasting treaty and alternative proposals for voluntary responses to piracy of webcasts. Civil liberties groups questioned why countries are being denied the “one option that has received the most support” -- excluding webcasting from the treaty. In the end, however, both they and a WIPO official said, the meeting had been productive.
LONDON -- Launch of the first set of standards for next generation networks (NGNs) shows the ITU can act efficiently and at low cost, the dir. of ITU’s telecom standardization bureau said Fri. The specifications were drawn up so quickly ITU no longer can be seen as slow, Houlin Zhao said. But, fearing industry will continue to refuse to work with the organization, Houlin pleaded for the telecom sector to “start with the ITU” on standardization. His comments came at an ITU-sponsored NGN conference here.
Telecom regulators expect to play a key role in a 2006 review of Europe’s new e-communications regulatory framework (NRF), the European Regulators Group’s (ERG’s) incoming head said in an interview. Kip Meek, chief policy partner at the U.K. Office of Communications (Ofcom), vowed as ERG chmn. to keep an “overwhelming focus” on substantive issues related to the review. A particular matter Meek wants to pursue is the amount of harmonization appropriate in national methods for deciding when to regulate a given market (CD Nov 14 p6).
EDINBURGH, Scotland -- A coming review of a European Commission (EC) e-communications regulatory package was a highlight of an Office of Communications (Ofcom) conference on next-generation networks here Thurs.-Fri. Review of the new regulatory framework (NRF) likely will focus on spectrum trading and streamlining means of analyzing telecom market competition, Fabio Colasanti, dir.-gen. of the Information Society & Media Directorate- Gen., said. Others want a broader approach, including a study of how truly desirable harmonized regulation is.
This week’s decision by France’s competition regulator to fine France Telecom (FT) 80 million ($94 million) more presages beefed up antitrust telecom sector enforcement, Winston Maxwell, a telecom attorney with Hogan & Hartson in Paris, said. On Tues., the Competition Council sanctioned FT for failing to let competitors enter the broadband DSL market in 1999-2002. The case arose in a 1999 Neuf Telecom complaint that FT was offering a broadband access product to ISPs but not giving other telcos access to its network in a way that let them offer competing products. In 2000, the council told FT to make such a product available. FT came up with a wholesale offer, ATM Connect ATM. However, it cost too much and had technical limits curbing competitors’ ability to build competing offers, Maxwell said. In 2002 French telecom regulator ART (now ARCEP) forced FT to lower its price. However, Maxwell said, the Competition Council felt FT ignored the substance of its 2000 order. In May 2004, it fined FT 20 million. The telco appealed. The appeals court doubled the fine, and this week the council, after reviewing the case, levied 80 million on top of that, saying FT’s behavior seriously hurt France’s economy. Specifically, the regulator said, FT practices: (1) Led to closure of the market for ADSL access, guaranteeing FT was the sole supplier. (2) Went on for 3 years despite Council injunctions and ART intervention. (3) Were carried out by a traditional vertically integrated operator that, due to its dominant position, bore a particular responsibility to the market. (4) Hampered an emerging market’s growth. The fine is significant, Maxwell said, because it shows the council’s “muscle” under the leadership of new Chmn. Bruno Lasserre. Lasserre, head of France’s telecom ministry in the early 1990s, was the “key architect of liberalization” of the telecom sector. The ruling is “a good example of ARCEP and the Competition Council working together in their respective roles,” Maxwell said. ARCEP has the power to force FT to modify wholesale offers, and the council has authority to sanction the telco’s anticompetitive behavior. FT called the ruling disproportionate, saying it will appeal. It cited mitigating factors, including Neuf Telecom’s filing its complaint before ART defined conditions for opening the market; that the ATM Connect ATM product was regulated and monitored as of 2001; and that the wholesale product FT sold to ISPs was instrumental in developing the broadband market in France, which “has become the leading European country both in terms of number of ADSL lines and number of unbundled lines.”
European justice ministers and the European Parliament (EP) are tangling over mandatory retention of communications data, European Digital Rights (EDRI) reported Thurs. On Nov. 14, 2 parliamentary panels will tackle amendments to a draft framework decision backed by the U.K. Presidency and the Justice & Home Affairs (JHA) Council. The Presidency is pushing for approval by its Jan. 1 term end, but the sides appear as far apart as ever. Still, the U.K. Home Office is optimistic of agreement by then, a spokesman said.
The U.K. Office of Communications (Ofcom) is “muddying the waters” of the U.K. telecom market by proposing to ease regulation on some British Telecom (BT) retail products and services before ensuring that rivals have adequate access to underlying wholesale offerings, the U.K. Competitive Telecom Assn. (UKCTA) said Fri. With 3 consultations underway or recently closed that will have a “fundamental impact” on competitors and consumers, Ofcom is sending alternative telcos confusing signals, said UKCTA Dir.-External Relations Christine Roberts in an interview. BT, however, disagreed that the issues should be kept separate.