Ministers now have to decide whether to incorporate numerous minor amendments proposed by the Parliament in rushing to adopt the formal Regulation.
In the UK, the telecoms watchdog Oftel has required BT to make its local loop available to competitors from July 2001, six months later than the Regulation requires, much to the annoyance of BT’s competitors. However, the Commission is reported by news agency Reuters as saying it has no plans to take legal action against either BT or the government for failing to comply with the January deadline. Oftel has said it is requiring BT to make available only 360 of its 6,000 local exchanges by January 2001.
The new law requires the opening to competition of the last mile of copper wires connecting buildings to local exchanges. Germany, Finland, the Netherlands, Denmark, Italy and Austria already grant access to the local loop networks.