According to the Commissioner, despite the efforts deployed by public authorities at EU and national level, the results of local loop unbundling throughout Europe are “extremely disappointing,” and fewer that 900,000 lines are unbundled. In many countries unbundling has not gone beyond a merely experimental stage.
Access to local loops is necessary for smaller telecoms operators, who are otherwise unable to offer high-speed data services in affordable prices. In March 2001 the EU adopted five Directives that aimed to address the issue and to offer a regulatory framework for the telecoms industry in the new competitive environment.
The provisions of the Directives relied more on market forces to determine competition. The Commission launched actions against Italy, Spain and France which had not completed the process of tariff rebalancing.
However the Commission has now adopted a much more regulatory-driven approach and a tough stance against incumbents such as BT, Deutsche Telecom and France Telecom, which are treated as monopolies.
Mr Monti said:
“I can confirm to you that local loop unbundling continues to be one of the priority areas for the Commission. Both DG Competition and DG Information Society… will do everything within our powers to foster effective access to the local loop and to ensure a level playing field between all actors in the market.”
“A sector enquiry is not carried out for the beauty of the exercise, but with a view to identify possible competition problems and taking action to resolve them.”