EC Gets tough with telecommunications.

MarkR

EC Gets tough with telecommunications.

The European Commission has begun legal action against five member states for not liberalising the local loop in theirr telecommunications networks.

France, Ireland, the Netherlands, Germany and Portugal have all been accused of breaking the 15 month old European Union law commanding member states to unbundle the local loop.

The local loop, otherwise known as "the last mile", is a common term for the part of the telephone network that connects individual users to telecom companies' central offices.

In a statement, the commision said action is being taken because national telecom regulators in the five countries are failing to prevent the incumbent operators from putting up obstacles to local loop competitors.

The local loop should be "sufficiently unbundled to allow competitors to pay just for what they require, and must in particular provide a breakdown of costs for the sub-loop so that an operator can install equipment closer to customers' premises than the local exchange", the commisioner said.

Unbundling is a pricess wherby incument operators allow competitors to service individual customers on the local loop.

These proceedings follow the action taken in December 2001 against Germany, Portugal, and Greece concerning shared acces to the local loop, at which time the commision made it clear that further legal action could be taken.

Two of the member states implicated in December, Portugal and Greece, have already remedied the problem, and the comission said today it is closing these two cases.

Germany has also recently reported positive steps to remedy the situationm and the Commision said it will consider closing that case too. "The action we have already taken has had immediate results, and i hope that national authorities can move quickly to overcome the problems that we are addressing in this latest decision on unbundling", said Erkki Liikanen, commisioner for enterprise and the information society.

"Regualtors and operators have had time to implement the requirements of the EU regulation, and there can be no more delays in opening up the local access market to competition," Liikanen said.



I found this in the latest issue of "PC Live!"

Apologies is you've seen it before.

Mark

pertinax

I think i remember a few months ago eircom siad their stance was "vindicated" or something similar. After they god praise from europe something to the tune of things apear to be progressing properly. I cant remember if it was Liikanin or not, was it mario monti? but i think theres some good stuff there it says exactly the truth:

Regualtors and operators have had time to implement the requirements of the EU regulation, and there can be no more delays in opening up the local access market to competition

I expect eircom to blame probably the odtr. What can europe do to eircom can they demand a fine be imposed on them?

dahamsta

I'm not entirely sure, but I would assume the EU would need to bring criminal proceedings against Eircom for anti-competitive practises.

adam

mdf

http://www.odtr.ie/docs/odtr0260.doc

spongebob

....should concentrate the minds in Eircom

say €50m or so......

p2p

Service Schedule 104 was developed in a short timeframe and the ODTR is aware that some elements of it, in particular the product description for sub loop unbundling may benefit from industry review. To allow for this, the ODTR will arrange for this to be set as an agenda item at the next LLU Review Forum. Access seekers are invited to submit any comments in relation to the product description or associated issues, by 5pm on 19th July 2002, to
By post:
Ms Carol Donohue
Market Operations
Office of the Director of Telecommunications Regulation
Abbey Court
Irish Life Centre
Lr Abbey St
Dublin 1
By email:
donohuec@odtr.ie

Should we not be submitting a "suggestion" ?

MDR

Indeed we should ...

BoneCollector

Regualtors and operators have had time to implement the requirements of the EU regulation, and there can be no more delays in opening up the local access market to competition

The thing that fly`s straight in the face of this here, is that the ODTR from what i have seen so far has no power to implement anything! and has to sit in a corner quietly untill someone (telcos) shout HELP!

This situation falls directly on governmental dpts cuz they have not implemented sufficient powers or directives to enable the ODTR to take command. (maybe im wrong but this is the impression im getting from everyone including the ODTR)

Just for the record...
I hope the EU cruisify!! errcom

SkepticOne

Originally posted by BoneCollector
Just for the record...
I hope the EU cruisify!! errcom

No, the EU will be fining us (Ireland), not Eircom if we don't implement LLU correctly.

longword

Originally posted by SkepticOne
No, the EU will be fining us (Ireland), not Eircom if we don't implement LLU correctly.

What should we do? Strip Eircom of its telecommunications license?

SkepticOne

Originally posted by longword

What should we do? Strip Eircom of its telecommunications license?

Then send in the army to run the network. I wish this didn't sound like a good idea.

BoneCollector

The local loop should be "sufficiently unbundled to allow competitors to pay just for what they require, and must in particular provide a breakdown of costs for the sub-loop so that an operator can install equipment closer to customers' premises than the local exchange", the commisioner said.

Hmmmm...
I wounder if thats why the following press release was issued?

Eircom told to give rivals more access