The
European Commission will take into account increased competition from
cable operators and alternative services such as WhatsApp when it
overhauls Europe’s telecoms rules next year, a move that will be cheered
by the telecoms industry.
A
draft seen by Reuters of the Commission’s strategy for creating a
digital single market says telecom operators compete with “over-the-top”
services “without being subject to the same regulatory regime”.
“It is necessary to design a fair and future-proof regulatory environment for all services,” the document says.
The
bloc’s telecom firms such as Orange and Deutsche Telekom have long
called for lighter-touch regulation, after years of declining revenues
and competition from new entrants, to enable them to invest in network
upgrades.
Telecom
companies point to increased competition from services such as Skype
(owned by Microsoft) and online messaging as a reason for easing the
regulatory burden.
Considering
Skype, or any other “voice-over-IP” application, as a substitute for
traditional phone services could lead to those companies being subject
to the same obligations as traditional operators, such as offering
emergency calls.
The
new European executive, which took office in November, has made
investment in superfast broadband a priority. But incumbent telecom
operators say the current set of rules does not provide incentives to
invest in their networks.
They
argue they would be forced to give competitors access to those
networks, an argument rejected by smaller alternative operators. Yet an
evidence document backing up the strategy, also seen by Reuters, states
that incumbents “appear to lack incentives to overbuild their own
largely depreciated copper network assets.”
The
Commission will unveil its proposals for an overhaul of the telecoms
framework in 2016, the document states. Commission Vice-President Andrus
Ansip is expected to unveil his digital single market strategy on May
6.
Posted by : Gizmeon
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