INTUG

A user’s internet access cannot be restricted without a prior ruling by the judicial authorities, the Industry Committee of the European Parliament (ITRE) insisted yesterday. The Committee also agreed on setting up a new regulatory body, comprising the heads of all national European telecommunications NRAs.

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European telecoms market research company IDATE published a study about functional separation involving a review of the existing examples in the UK and Australia and the (several) projects under consideration in New Zealand, Italy and Sweden. The paper also assesses the initial impact on the functional separation case in the UK – which has been operational for 2 years – and includes a comparison with the lessons learned from older examples of functional and structural separation in other network industries.

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Source: IDATE

INTUG welcomes the European Commission’s proposals for revision of the European Regulatory Framework for Telecommunications. Whilst applauding the EU’s progress in the last decade towards an open and competitive telecommunications market, the business users which INTUG represent are still unable to obtain the seamless services within all Member States, or across the EU, that they need to support efficient ICT investment.

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The Swedish government has approved legislation giving the national regulator PTS the power to impose functional separation on dominant network operators, Telecompaper reports.

The bill, entitled “Functional separation for better broadband competition”, is intended to improve competition in the broadband market.Read more…

Read the original press release press release (in Swedish).

Source: Telecompaper, PTS

At an ITRE hearing on 27 February, representatives of several telecommunications operators, the British NRA Ofcom and the European regulators Group (ERG) had the opportunity to comment publicly on the 2008 European Framework Review.

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INTUG is actively lobbying the European Commission for the Framework Review, in particular to improve availability and competition in the provision of access circuits. This is critical for multinational corporations seeking to establish regional and global networks with consolidated applications and one-stop-shop management of supply, e.g. global or European contracts. This requires equivalence of input available to competitive carriers in individual member states and the preservation of MVNOs.

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