The EU Electronic Communication Regulatory Framework



Table of Contents

Chapter 1: History of the Regulation of Telecom in EU3

Chapter 2: New Reform Framework and its Objective29

Chapter 3: Evaluation of the Reform and its Effect on Competition44

Chapter 4: Assessment Outcome and Conclusion79

References89

Bibliography96

Appendix108

Chapter 1: History of the Regulation of Telecom in EU

The basic arguement of the regulation is simple and straightforward. The European Commission begins by defining a series of relevant electronic communications markets' and by providing a set of guidelines for determining the presence or absence of market power. all based on methodologies borrowed from competition law and economics.

The purpose of the study is to identify the EU Electronic Communication Regulatory Framework, along with its effect on competition. This chapter discusses the history of the history of the regulation of telecom in EU. Further, it will give a concise explanation of the aim of the regulatory framework and its success in achieving its goals. (Andenas 2004)

For most of the twentieth century, telecommunications services in Europe were provided by a series of national monopolies, usually store-owned and often operated in conjunction with postal services. From the early 1980s onwards, governments in several European countries and most notably the recently-elected Thatcher government in the United Kingdom, began to reform the organisation of their telecoms sectors. The British reforms centred on the privatisation of the incumbent operator, British Telecom, and sought to introduce a measure of competition into the telecoms market through the licensing of a second operator, Mercury. Nevertheless, despite the apparently radical nature of the British measures, competition in the UK remained extremely limited, whilst virtually everywhere else in Europe the old monopoly structures remained largely unchanged and reform was often bitterly opposed.

By the first of January 1998, this situation had changed radically. The decade up to 1998 saw the progressive introduction of competition into all areas of telecommunications service provision in the European Union (albeit at a slower rate in a small number of member states) and the introduction of common rules for the regulation of the newly liberalised national markets. This resulted from concerted action at the European Union level to create a European telecommunications policy and put in place a European regulatory framework for the telecoms sector. (Andenas 2004)

Early developments

The first section outlines the path taken to full competition in 1998 and the development of the current EU regulatory framework for telecommunications (in Commission terms the '1998 Regulatory Package'). The second section looks at regulatory implementation in EU member states and presents some of the most up-to-date performance data for national telecoms markets to give a general indication of member states' relative progress to a competitive market in the sector. The final section examines the very recent reforms of the EU Regulatory Framework, embodied in the so-called 'New Regulatory Package', which were still under discussion at the time of writing.

The 1980s witnessed an international trend towards deregulation or liberalisation in many areas of public policy. Whilst perhaps pursued most ardently by the Reagan and Thatcher administrations in the ...